Head coach Brian Gimmillaro said the NCAA Tournament selection committee “continues to do no favors” for Long Beach State on Sunday night.
The 49er women’s volleyball team is set to play 24th-ranked Pepperdine University in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The teams face off on Friday at 4:30 p.m. on the campus of Stanford University in Palo Alto.
The NCAA committee announced the 64-team field for this year’s Division I tournament in a selection show, which the team watched together at Legends. Also included in the bracket with LBSU are Albany (23-8) and No. 2-seeded Stanford (26-3), which is also ranked No. 2 in the nation and the target of Gimmillaro’s comment.
LBSU (25-5) will be working hard this week during practice in preparation for the tournament.
“We have three days to get better than Pepperdine,” Gimmillaro said. “Our practice is not a warm-up, it’s to get better. We will not back off this week.”
This will be the 22nd consecutive appearance by Big West champions LBSU. The team won the NCAA title in 1989, 1993 and 1998. This will also be freshman outside hitter Caitlin Ledoux’s first appearance in an NCAA tournament.
“I’m so excited to go to Stanford and play Pepperdine,” Ledoux said. “They’re a good team.”
Although the second-ranked team in the nation is included in the bracket, senior setter Nicole Vargas sees this as a chance for the team to prove themselves.
“I’ve been wanting to play Stanford and a lot of the top teams for a while,” she said. “I really think that we have a lot to prove.”
Pepperdine (20-7) will be making its 20th appearance in the NCAA Tournament — its fourth in a row. Pepperdine finished fourth in the West Coast Conference. Their last meeting with LBSU in the postseason was in 2006, when they lost in four sets.
Albany is the three-time defending America East Conference champion and will be making its fourth trip to the NCAA Tournament. Albany advanced to the second round of the tournament last season for the first time in school history.
Stanford clinched the NCAA title in 1992, 1994, 1996, 2001 and 2004, and is one of two teams to qualify for the tournament every year. This will be the 28th consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament for the three-time defending Pac-10 Conference champions.
The winners of the first round will play against each other on Saturday at 7 p.m. The winner of the second round will advance to play in the Sweet 16 in Fort Collins, Colo.
Sports editor Tracy McDannald contributed to this report.
I fancy that our ladies will be itchin’ for a challenge at the Farm. Pepperdine should be a straightforward affair, but a possible second-round test with Stanford could define how far this team has come.
Good luck, Brian Gimmilaro and company.
As always, Go Beach.