The NCAA News - News Features

Division III

Washington (Missouri) hopes to continue its decade of dominance

OVERVIEW: The runners-up may change, but the champion has remained the same in Division III volleyball for much of this decade. Washington (Missouri) has reigned as champion since 1991 and has a sixth straight title in its sights. The Bears are top-ranked at 26-5 and are unbeaten against Division III foes. Returning all-American setter Stephanie Habif conducts the attack and Jennifer Martz is the squad's top hitter (425 kills, .407 hitting percentage) .... Only two of the Bears' 26 victims have taken the match to five games. One of those teams is fifth-ranked St. Olaf. The Oles are looking for a fourth straight tournament appearance behind the foursome of Brenda Bliese, Jeanette Tuohy, Traci Rasmussen and Jen Kuzma, who have combined for more than 1,000 kills for the 26-2 team. Setter Maggie Cope is doing the distributing with 1,016 assists .... Perennial contender Juniata is the field's lone unbeaten team at 33-0 and is attempting to claim the school's first title. "There's been a nice combination of maturity and youth that has helped move things along and keep everyone's interest up," said coach Larry Bock, whose Warriors are the only team with 15 tournament appearances. "We're trying to be very consistent this year and not doing anything differently now than what we've been doing. We'll probably make a shift from a technical focus to a tactical focus, but that might be the only difference." Robin Diehl is the Warriors' leading hitter with 254 kills and a .393 hitting percentage .... Several contenders could come from the Wisconsin State University Conference, where four teams have been ranked throughout the campaign. Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Wisconsin-Whitewater and Wisconsin-River Falls are tied at the top of the league standings with one loss apiece -- and they've all beaten each other. Wisconsin-Oshkosh posted a school-best 27-0 start until a 3-0 loss to Wisconsin-Whitewater. The Titans lost middle blocker Jodi Downs to an ankle injury during that match, but still feature all-American setter Amy Ward and junior hitter Melanie Leet, who sports a .319 hitting percentage and 171 kills .... Other contenders include UC San Diego, Cal Lutheran, Ohio Northern, Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Bluffton and Cortland State.

FIELD: Thirty-two teams were selected from eight regions November 10. Four teams were selected from each of the eight regions.

DATES AND SITES: All matches will be played at on-campus sites. Eight four-team regionals will be played November 15-16 and quarterfinals will be conducted November 23. The semifinals and final will be December 6-7.

INFORMATION/RESULTS: The fax-on-demand telephone number is 770/399-3060 (passcode 1915); request numbers are 1692 for bracket/schedule, 5329 for semifinal results, 5330 for the third-place match results and 5331 for championship-match results. Game scores and pairings also will be available on the World Wide Web at www.ncaa.org. Championship results will be published in the December 16 issue of The NCAA News.

CHAMPIONSHIP NOTES: UC San Diego and Washington have won the most titles with six. Juniata and UC San Diego have reached the semifinals a record 11 times. La Verne is next with four semifinal appearances .... It has been 10 years since a team other than Washington (Missouri) or UC San Diego won the title.