NCAA Tournament Bracket in PDF
UT Rio Grande Valley will travel to Austin, Texas, to face No. 4 Texas in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at 6:30 p.m. (CT) this Friday, Dec. 2.
The Vaqueros (21-13), earned the WAC's automatic bid by winning the WAC Tournament last weekend as the No. 5 seed with upsets of fourth-seeded UMKC, top-seeded NM State and No. 2 seed Utah Valley. UTRGV is the lowest seeded team ever to win the WAC Tournament.
UTRGV is led by first team All-WAC honoree Bojana Mitrovic, who averages 3.31 kills, 2.06 digs and 0.94 blocks per set. Ragni Steen Knudsen adds 3.48 kills and 2.39 digs per set, while WAC Tournament MVP Alisha Watson averages 3.11 kills and 1.45 digs per set.
Texas (22-4) earned an at-large bid out of the Big 12 Conference and is the No. 4 overall seed. The Longhorns are led by Micaya White, who averages 4.07 kills per set. Ebony Nwanebu adds 3.67 kills on .372 hitting. Texas advanced to the national championship last season, where it fell to Nebraska. It has finished in the top three in each of the last four seasons.
In the other match, Texas A&M (21-8) faces SMU (25-7) at 4 p.m. (CT) Friday. The Aggies earned an at-large bid out of the Southeastern Conference, while the Mustangs earned the automatic bid out of the American Athletic Conference.
The winners of the two matches will play at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 3.
The interactive bracket can be found
here.