Cougars Earn 18th NCAA Volleyball Tournament Appearance as East Region No. 3 Seed

BYU to Host Princeton in the First Round Friday at the Smith Fieldhouse

PROVO -- BYU was selected to its 18th NCAA Volleyball Tournament in the 19 years of the event during the NCAA Selection Show Sunday. The Cougars are the East Region No. 3 seed and will host the first and second rounds of the tournament Friday and Saturday in the Smith Fieldhouse.

The Cougars will face Ivy League champion Princeton (23-6) Friday at 7 p.m. in the first round. Arizona State (14-12) and Wisconsin (21-9) play in the other match in Provo, which begins Friday at 5 p.m. The winners will play Saturday in the Smith Fieldhouse.

BYU is one of three Mountain West Conference schools to make the tournament field of 64. Colorado State (28-2) is the No. 3 seed in the Mountain Region and will host Loyola of Chicago (24-9) in Fort Collins. Utah (21-9) will make its second straight NCAA appearance and will travel to Hawaii to face the Big 12's Colorado (18-11) in the first round. The winner of that match will likely face Mountain Region No. 1 seed Hawaii (27-1), who opens against Prairie View (18-16).

Eight teams from the Big 10 made the tournament, headlined by No. 1 Penn State. The Big 12 has six teams in the event, the Pac --10 five and the Big West and West Coast with four each.

Last year BYU advanced to the Central Regional Finals before losing to eventual NCAA runner-up Penn State. The Cougars have made it to the regional finals in each of the past three seasons. In 1993, the Cougars made its only Final Four appearance before losing to Penn State in the semifinals.

Only four schools have made more NCAA Tournament appearances than BYU. Stanford, Penn State, Pacific and UC Santa Barbara have been to the tournament in each of its 19 years. This year, Stanford, Penn State and Pacific are three of the four No. 1 seeds, along with Hawaii. UCSB is seeded No. 2. After being in Penn State's bracket the past two season, this year the Cougars would travel to Pacific if they advance to regionals.