Volleyball preps for conference tournament

MT will play the night match to begin the 2009 Sun Belt Championships after earning the two seed as announced by the league office on Sunday.

Originally it was thought the Blue Raiders would play at 5 p.m. when the tournament begins on Thursday, Nov. 19 but tournament host Western Kentucky chose the 5 p.m. match, so MT will play at 7:30 p.m.

The Blue Raiders will face the seven seed Arkansas-Little Rock. The Blue Raiders defeated the Trojans earlier this season 3-0 at home.

“Of course we are excited for the tournament to start. I think we have had a very good season so far and I think our team is playing very well at this time. Our players know what is on the line as far as making it to the NCAA Tournament and are excited to get things going,” head coach Matt Peck said.

MT is on the same side of the bracket as three seed Western Kentucky. The Hilltoppers will play Denver in the first round.

With a win in the first round of the tournament, the Blue Raiders will play the winner of Western Kentucky and Denver in the semi-finals.

Florida International completed its undefeated run in Sun Belt action on Saturday night with a 3-0 win over Florida Atlantic. FIU received the top seed in the tournament and will face North Texas at 12 p.m. to begin play on Thursday.

New Orleans and Arkansas State complete that side of the bracket as they received the fourth and fifth seeds respectively. The two teams were also named co-champions in the West Division but the Pioneers received the higher seed because they won both regular season matches over ASU. The championship will be held November 19 through 21 on the campus of Western Kentucky in Bowling Green, Ky.

The championship match at 3 p.m. will also be broadcast by the Sun Belt Network. The championship match will air November 22 at 5 p.m. on CSS (Channel 27 in Rutherford County) and November 23 on CST at 6 p.m.

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