Both Hawaii and Utah State will represent the WAC in the 2010 NCAA Volleyball Tournament. The Rainbow Wahine earned the No. 15 overall seed in the field and will face Portland State at 5 p.m. PT on Thursday, Dec. 2, in Seattle. The Aggies will travel to Berkeley, Calif., to take on seventh-seeded California at 7 p.m. PT on Friday.
The Rainbow Wahine (28-2) will face Portland State (21-8) in the first round. The other first round match pits host Washington (21-8) against Michigan (23-9). The winners will play Friday, Dec. 3 for the right to advance to the Seattle Regional, Dec. 10 and 11.
UH will travel to a first and second round site for the seventh consecutive year.
Washington finished fifth in the highly-competitive Pac-10 Conference. Portland State won the Big Sky Conference regular season and tournament and will make their second NCAA Tournament appearance in the last three years. Michigan tied for fourth in the Big Ten Conference and was one of eight Big Ten teams selected to the field of 64.
Utah State (24-8) will be appearing in the NCAA Tournament for the fourth time in school history after defeating Nevada (3-1), New Mexico State (3-2) and No. 3 Hawai'i (3-0) in the WAC Tournament to earn the league's automatic bid. USU finished in third-place in the WAC during the regular season.
Utah State's opponent, California (25-3), enters the NCAA Tournament as the seventh-seed after winning the PAC-10 regular season title despite losing to Arizona State (3-2) last weekend. Cal, who was ranked No. 2 in the nation last week, is making its school-record ninth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and 14th trip in school history.
Utah State is 4-2 all-time against California including a three-set loss at Cal the last time the two teams met during the 2007 season. This will be the second-ever meeting between the two schools in postseason play as USU posted a five-set win against the Bears in the 1981 AIAW National Championships. Utah State finished third in the nation that year.
North Carolina of the ACC (24-9) will play Mississippi of the SEC (19-10) in the other first round match Friday at 6 p.m (MT). The winners of the two first round matches will face each other in the second round on Saturday, Dec. 4 at 7 p.m. (MT).