The NCAA News - News and Features

November 10, 1997

Division III Women's Volleyball

Bears seeking seventh straight title with help from six returning players

Event: 1997 Division III Women's Volleyball Championship.

Overview: Seven could be heaven as the women of Washington (Missouri) look to capture their seventh consecutive championship. The Bears return six members from last year's team and are ranked in the top five at 28-6. Jennifer Martz, the squad's top hitter (485 kills, .537 hitting percentage), leads this year's team .... Undefeated in Division III matches and ranked No. 1, Juniata will pursue the school's first title. The Eagles, who complied a 37-0 record in 1996 before losing in the quarterfinals of last year's championship, had a 59-match regular-season win streak snapped this season by Division I Princeton. Leading the Eagles are senior outside hitter Melissa Myers (360 kills, 73 service aces), sophomore outside hitter Kristin Hershey (.350 hitting percentage) and senior setter Jennifer Rebert, who dishes out 12.47 assists per game .... Other contenders hoping for a little divine intervention in seeking the championship are Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Wisconsin-Whitewater, UC San Diego, Cortland State and Wittenberg.

Field: Forty-eight teams. Six teams were selected from each of eight regions.

Dates and sites: All matches will be played at on-campus sites. Eight six-team regionals will be played November 13-15 or 14-16 and quarterfinals will be November 22. The semifinals and finals will be December 5-6.

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 15 issue of The NCAA News.