Bakersfield will travel to Palo Alto, Calif., to face No. 1 Stanford in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at 7 p.m. (PT) this Friday, Dec. 5. The Roadrunners (16-14) earned the WAC's automatic bid by winning the WAC Tournament title last weekend. This is Bakersfield's first NCAA Tournament appearance at the Division I level. The 'Runners are led by Danika Youngblood, who averages 3.74 kills and 2.61 digs per set. Kelsee Sawyer averages 3.30 kills, while Molly O'Hagan adds 3.23 kills on .305 hitting and 0.90 blocks per set.
Stanford (29-1) earned the automatic bid out of the Pacific-12 Conference and is the No. 1 overall seed. The Cardinal are led by Inky Ajanaku, who averages 3.55 kills per set on .446 hitting and 1.15 blocks per set. As a team, Stanford out-hits opponents .316 to .176 on the season. In the other match, Michigan State (18-13) faces Loyola Marymount (23-7) at 4:30 p.m. (PT) Friday. The Spartans are on a five-match winning streak and earned an at-large bid out of the Big Ten, while the Lions earned an at-large bid out of the West Coast Conference.The winners of the two matches will play at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 6. The interactive bracket can be found here.