The NCAA News - News Features

Division I Women's Volleyball Preview -- Able Florida looks for first title

Event: 1996 Division I Women's Volleyball Championship.

Overview: Top-ranked Florida may be poised for its first championship despite losing five starters from last year's 35-2 team that advanced to the regional finals. The Gators have reeled off 29 consecutive wins after a season-opening five-game defeat at the hands of Hawaii. Junior middle blocker Nina Foster is among national leaders in hitting percentage -- Florida ranks fourth as a team in that category -- and senior hitter Jenny Wood is second in school history with more than 1,250 career kills. The Gators swept through the SEC for the second straight year and have not dropped a conference match since 1994 .... Hawaii occupied the top spot in the American Volleyball Coaches Association poll until a 3-1 loss to Stanford and is now No. 3 at 27-1 after wins against Air Force and Nevada-Las Vegas. Senior Angelica Ljungquist ranks third nationally in hitting percentage (.440) and is tops in blocks with 1.89 per game .... Defending champion Nebraska is 23-3 and powered by junior Lisa Reitsma, who averages nearly five kills a game .... Stanford, champions in 1994 and 1992, are ranked No. 2 at 23-2 after blanking Pacific-10 Conference rivals UCLA and Southern California in three games apiece. Those wins allowed the Cardinal to clinch at least a tie for the Pac-10 title for the third straight year .... Another 1995 semifinalist, Michigan State, features the top hitter in Division I, Val Sterk, who has posted a .451 hitting percentage thus far for the 20-6 Spartans .... Other contenders include Penn State, Long Beach State, Loyola Marymount, Texas and Ohio State.

Field: Forty-eight teams were selected December 1. At least one team was selected from each of eight districts. Eighteen conferences were granted automatic qualification and 12 conferences competed in play-in competitions to fill six berths. The remaining teams were selected at large.

Dates and sites: Sixteen first-round matches will be played December 4 and 16 second-round matches will be played December 7 or 8, all on participating institutions' campuses. Four regional tournaments will be played December 12-15. The semifinals and final will be December 19 and 21 at Cleveland State.

Television: ESPN2 will provide live coverage of the semifinals at 6 p.m. (Eastern time) December 19. ESPN2 will televise the final live at 4 p.m. December 21, and ESPN will provide tape-delayed coverage at 1 p.m. December 22.

Information/results: The fax-on-demand telephone number is 770/399-3060 (passcode 1915); request numbers are 1679 for bracket/schedule, 5324 for semifinal results and 5325 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 January 6 issue of The NCAA News.

Championship notes: Penn State, Pacific (California), UCLA, Stanford and UC Santa Barbara all have been selected to participate in each of the 15 previous championships.