Kearney, Neb. - The Nebraska-Kearney volleyball team is in the NCAA Tournament for a 15th straight season and will battle MIAA rival Central Missouri in the first round of the Central Regional on Thursday, December 5th, in Duluth, Minn.

Match time is set for 2:30 p.m.

The 64-team NCAA field, eight schools from each of Division II's eight regions, was announced tonight. The complete bracket is available HERE.

The Central Region is far and away the best as in the country as, besides the six-time defending national champion Concordia-St. Paul, it features seven other Top 25 teams. One of those clubs, No. 18 Wayne State, didn't even make the regional.
 
The regional, hosted by Minnesota-Duluth, and with match times now set (as of Nov. 26th), will be played in Romano Gymnasium. Check out www.umdbulldogs.com for further tourney updates.

The seventh-seed Lopers (28-8) are no strangers to the second-seeded Jennies (32-1) as the two teams have met twice in the last 10 days in Warrensburg, Mo.

The Jennies swept UNK (-21, -21, -18) on November 15th and then won the MIAA Tournament title in five sets over the Lopers this past Saturday (25-27, -27, -15, 19-25, -12)
 
The UNK/UCM winner takes on either Concordia (29-3) or Northern State (22-7). On the other half of the bracket, the UMD Bulldogs square off against the Arkansas Tech Golden Suns and MIAA-member Washburn battles SW Minnesota State.

The region winners advance to the Elite Eight, held Dec. 12-14 in Cedar Rapids, Ia. The Central champ will take on the South Champ in one quarterfinal match; the top team in that region is No. 1 ranked Tampa.

Below are the seeds for the regional, along with national ranking as of Nov. 18th, and record to date.
 
1. # 2 Minnesota –Duluth (31-2) … earned automatic bid by winning the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference tourney
2. # 5 Central Missouri (32-1) … earned automatic bid by winning the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association tourney
3. # 3 Concordia-St. Paul (29-3)
4. # 8 Washburn (31-5)
5. # 7 Southwest Minnesota State (23-7)
6. # 22 Northern State (22-7)
7. # 11 Nebraska-Kearney (28-6)
8. Arkansas Tech (25-11) … earned automatic bid by winning the Great American Conference tourney