INDIANAPOLIS – Hawai`i has earned the No. 12 overall seed in the in the 2009 NCAA Volleyball Tournament and will face New Mexico on Friday, Dec. 4, on the campus of Southern California in Los Angeles.
The Rainbow Wahine (28-2) were awarded the 12th seed after winning their 10th-straight WAC Tournament and 14th-straight WAC regular-season title. UH is making its 28th appearance in the NCAA Tournament and its 17th in a row. This is the sixth-straight season and seventh in the last nine years that the Rainbow Wahine earned a top 16 seed but will not host the first and second rounds. Hawai`i has advanced to the NCAA Regionals in 10 of the last 11 tournaments.
New Mexico (20-9) earned an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament out of the Mountain West Conference. It is the Lobos' first appearance in the tournament since 1994.
Host USC (21-9) will face Oklahoma (18-11) in the other first round match. The winners of the two matches will play on Saturday, Dec. 5, for a berth in the Stanford Regional the following weekend.
Team pairings were determined by geographical proximity, with the exception that teams from the same conference were not paired during the first and second rounds.