The NCAA News - News and Features

December 1, 1997

Division I Women's Volleyball

Stanford a contender once again

Event: 1997 Division I Women's Volleyball Championship.

Overview: Stanford has won three titles in the 1990s. With two returning all-Americans, Kerri Walsh and Lisa Sharpley, the Cardinal hopes to make it four .... But Long Beach State also is looking to win another title this decade -- its second. The 49ers are 25-1 and undefeated in conference play. Senior Nique Crump leads her team and the nation with a .452 hitting percentage .... Penn State held the No. 1 spot in the American Volleyball Coaches Association poll until losing to Wisconsin in late October. Undefeated at home this season, the Nittany Lions have the nation's longest home-court win streak at 30. Sophomore Bonnie Bremner hopes her team goes the distance, just as she has this season. Bremner has played every point of every match this season and has a .384 hitting percentage .... Florida captured a seventh consecutive Southeastern Conference regular-season championship and looks to make a strong run for the title. The Gators are led by middle blocker Nina Foster (4.15 kills per game and a .448 hitting percentage) and setter Nikki Shade (13.37 assists per game) .... At 22-2, Wisconsin is ranked fifth. Senior outside hitter Amy Lee leads the Badgers with 3.78 kills per game, and sophomore Kelly Kennedy has added 3.52 kills per game and a .358 hitting percentage .... Other contenders include UC Santa Barbara, Southern California, Arizona, Brigham Young, Texas and Nebraska.

Field: Fifty-six teams were selected November 30. At least one team was selected from each of the eight districts. Twenty-six conferences were granted automatic qualification and four conferences competed in play-in competition to fill two berths. The remaining teams were selected at large.

Dates and sites: Sixteen first-round matches will be played December 4 or 5 and 16 second-round matches will be played December 6 or 7, all on campuses of participating institutions. Four regional tournaments will be played on campuses of participating institutions December 11-14. The semifinals and finals will be December 18 and 20 at the Spokane Arena in Spokane, Washington.

Television: ESPN2 will provide tape-delay coverage of the first semifinal game at 12:30 a.m. (Eastern time) December 19 and the second semifinal game at 12:30 a.m. December 20. ESPN2 will televise the finals live at 3 p.m. December 20.

Information/results: The fax-on-demand telephone number is 770/399-3060 (passcode 1915); request numbers are 1679 for bracket/schedule, 5234 for semifinal results, and 5325 for championship-match results. Scores and pairings also will be available on the World Wide Web at www.ncaa.org. Championship results will be published in the January 5 issue of The NCAA News.