Volleyball Selected for the NCAA Tournament
11/26/2006 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
TUSCALOOSA??For the second time in school history, the Alabama volleyball team has been selected to compete in the NCAA volleyball tournament and will travel to Austin, Texas for its first-round match against Stephen F. Austin State University.
As the team and coaching staff gathered in the Alabama soccer complex to watch the unveiling of the 64-team field, shouts and cheers erupted when the Tide’s name was revealed as an at-large bid.
This year’s trip will be the second consecutive time Alabama has made the field of 64, with 2005’s team making the inaugural trip last season.
“Today’s an exciting day,” Alabama head coach Judy Green said. “If you’ve been to this tournament 20 times in a row, it’s exciting to go. There are different teams, different groups of kids, but we’re ecstatic about our draw, playing Stephen F. Austin in the first round. They’re a good team, good coaching staff, good conference, and this is a really exciting day for our program.”
Alabama takes with it a secret weapon into the first round: assistant coach Jill Kramer, who spent three years at the University of Texas-San Antonio??the main rival of the Tide’s first-round foe.
The Ladyjacks defeated Texas-Arlington 3-0 in the Southland Conference tournament championship this season to earn one of 31 automatic bids to the NCAA tournament.
“The Southland Conference is a different type of play, and I was there three years before I came here, and that was one of our biggest rivals of the school I was at, so I know them really, really well,” Kramer said. “I know a lot about every one of their players and they’re a very senior-laden class, but the same kids have been playing the whole time. A huge part of their roster is from Texas and those kids played club when I coached club, so a lot of them I’ve known for five or six years.”
“I’m very familiar and very excited about our pick.”
If Alabama wins its round one game against the Ladyjacks, it will advance to take on the winner of the Texas-Prairie View match in the second round.
Having such an expert on the Tide’s first-round opponent, Green knows, can prove vital in the coming days as Alabama reviews film of a team that went 30-3 this season and captured its conference title.
“I think we’ll definitely lean on [coach Kramer],” Green said. “She coached in the same conference and coached against [Stephen F. Austin] two or three times a year. It’s all about us being a great team and great coaching staff, and that’s probably one of the best things we’ve had going for us in our corner all year long is how this team has come together. But it’s nice to have someone on your staff that has the first-hand experience, but she hasn’t seem this team this year, so we’ll wait until we see the videotape and go through our routine and get our team ready to play.”
Alabama was one of seven SEC teams to make the NCAA tournament, though the issue was still in doubt up until the last region was revealed. Though the team and coaches sat through the unveiling of 48 teams before Alabama’s name was called, Tide players say they were confident all along.
“I was nervous but I had faith that we’d get in,” senior Rachael Green said. “I just had a lot of confidence. We’ve been very successful this year and have worked so hard that I just had faith that we’d get in.”
According to coach Green, Tide coaches weren’t taking the early snubbing as calmly.
“My heart was beating out of my chest,” coach Green said. “I looked at coach Redding and said, ??There’s only 16 spots left,’ and he looked at me and his eyes got really big and he doesn’t usually sweat very much in public. I knew LSU was going to go but I knew when they took Ole Miss then I figured Alabama was going to go too. We’re all so close in the RPI and we all beat each other up so much, that’s what a good conference does.
“Some people second-guessed our division, but today is one of those days I feel we really proved ourselves as a conference. I really felt that we could get seven deep and I’m really happy for all the teams that got in the tournament, they all deserve to be there and it’s going to be a really fun ride.”
