Volleyball Championship Bracket - Click Here
SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The ETSU Buccaneers used three straight wins in the final week of regular-season play to earn the Southern Conference regular-season title and the top overall seed in the 2016 SoCon Volleyball Championship, which will be held Nov. 19-21 on the campus of Samford University in Birmingham, Ala.
The Bucs (21-7, 13-3 SoCon) swept Mercer (15-13, 7-9 SoCon) Saturday afternoon to clinch their first SoCon regular-season crown since 1991. As the No. 1 seed, they will face the winner of the tournament’s opening match on Saturday, Nov. 19, between No. 8 seed Furman(10-18, 6-10 SoCon) and No. 9 seed The Citadel (8-24, 1-14 SoCon).
UNCG (17-12, 11-5 SoCon) claimed the No. 2 seed in the tournament after notching a pair of wins in the last week of the regular season. The Spartans will face the No. 7 seed in Western Carolina (11-18, 6-10 SoCon) in the 5 p.m., Saturday match in Birmingham, Ala. The Catamounts edged Furman for the seventh spot by virtue of the league’s tiebreaker rules.
Third-seeded Chattanooga (17-12, 10-6 SoCon) will clash with No. 6 seed Mercer in the late match on Saturday, which is slated for 7:30 p.m.
In the noon Saturday match, No. 4 seed Samford (18-13, 9-7 SoCon) will face No. 5 seed Wofford (17-14, 9-7 SoCon). Both squads went 9-7 in conference play and split their pair of matches against each other in the regular season, but the Bulldogs claimed the fourth seed by virtue of the SoCon’s tiebreaker rules.
The semifinal round of the tournament will be held on Sunday, Nov. 20, with matches scheduled for 2 p.m. and 4:30 p.m., before it culminates 6 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 21, with the championship match.
The tournament champion will earn the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Volleyball Championships.
2016 Southern Conference Volleyball Championship
Pete Hanna Center ? Birmingham, Ala.
Saturday, Nov. 19
First Round
Match 1: #8 Furman vs. #9 The Citadel, 9:30 a.m. (SDN)
Quarterfinals
Match 2: #4 Samford vs. #5 Wofford, Noon (SDN)
Match 3: #1 ETSU vs. Match 1 winner, 2:30 p.m. (SDN)
Match 4: #2 UNCG vs. #7 Western Carolina, 5 p.m. (SDN)
Match 5: #3 Chattanooga vs. #6 Mercer, 7:30 p.m. (SDN)
Sunday, Nov. 20
Semifinals
Match 6: Match 2 winner vs. Match 3 winner, 2 p.m. (SDN)
Match 7: Match 4 winner vs. Match 5 winner, 4:30 p.m. (SDN)
Monday, Nov. 21
Championship
Match 8: Match 6 winner vs. Match 7 winner, 6 p.m. (ESPN3)