2008 Woodie Awards
MT faces Louisville in NCAA tournament
Clarence Plank
Issue date: 11/29/07 Section: Sports
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For the second straight year the Blue Raiders will be traveling to Louisville, Ky., to face Louisville as it was announced by the NCAA Volleyball Committee.
The letdown of the night was that the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament might have been played in Murfreesboro, meaning that Louisville (22-7), Tennessee State (20-13) and Hawaii (26-5) would have came to MT over the weekend.
"We're a little disappointed that we're not hosting," Peck said. "But in all honesty, we play very well on the road and played very well there last year."
Last year MT made history by beating Louisville 3-2 in the first round advancing to the second round where Ohio State knocked the Blue Raiders out of the NCAA Tournament with a 3-1 win.
This year Louisville leads the nation in blocks per (something, someone fix this), where MT is currently seventh. The game is going to come down to ball control for the Blue Raiders and how well they can pass the ball against Louisville.
MT is going to spend their time before they head to Louisville on Thursday tuning up and practicing, but changing little since this season's formula has proven successful.
"I think we're a better this year than we were last year," Peck said. "That's obvious. We're more balanced, our ball control is better, our blocking is better. So we're excited no matter who our opponent was going to be in the first round."
"I think Louisville would be very motivated in playing us obviously, but we're more motivated to play them. I think it will be a very good match," Peck said. "We'll be playing in the convention center where we played last year and they lost the home court advantage a little bit. I think it will be one of the best first round matches in the tournament."
Right now MT has an RPI of 12 and could finish 20th in the season's final rankings.
"I think we need to have really solid performances from our younger players," Peck said. "They have to step and play big and I believe it will be a great match up."
For the first time ever in the Sun Belt Conference, the team received an at-large bid with Western Kentucky after finishing in second place in the conference as a runner up in the SBC Championship.
The Lady Hilltoppers earned a nod to face Wright State. WSU won the Missouri Valley Conference. WKU will be traveling to Lincoln, Nebraska for the first round.
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