By Nicholas Huenefeld/Owens Sports Information
BRACKET - here
Toledo, Ohio---The Owens Community College women's volleyball team received the No. 2 seed at the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division II National Tournament and will open the tournament next Thursday at 11 a.m. ET against No. 15 seed Potomac State (WV) College.
The 16-team tournament to crown a national champion will be held Nov. 17-19 at the Charleston Civic Center in Charleston, W.V.
The Catamounts of Potomac State will enter the tournament with a 20-6 record. Four of their six losses have come to opponents that Owens has defeated this year - Lorain County Community College, Cuyahoga Community College, Catawba Valley Community College and Spartanburg Methodist Community College.
Should Owens advance past the opening round, they would take on the winner of No. 7 seed Johnson County Community College (21-15) and No. 10 seed Sauk Valley Community College (33-7) at 5:30 p.m. ET next Thursday.
The semifinals will be held Nov. 18 at 6:30 p.m. ET, and the national championship match will take place Nov. 19 at 4:30 p.m. ET. The tournament's top seed went to the defending national champion Parkland College (48-2). In fact, Parkland College represents the lone loss at the NJCAA Division II level for Owens this year.
Should Owens lose at any point in the tournament, they would still have a chance to place, but they wouldn't be able to win the national championship. Last year, Owens lost its opening round match, but went on to finish ninth in the nation.
This year's Owens volleyball team is 38-4 overall. They captured Ohio Community College Athletic Conference (OCCAC) and Region XII District F championships for the second consecutive season. This is the program's fifth NJCAA Division II National Tournament appearance since 2003. Four of those five have come in the past seven years.
Notes
This year's seeding marks the highest tournament ranking for Owens volleyball at the NJCAA Division II level, and they also finished the season ranked second in the NJCAA Division II poll, which is also the highest ranking the program has achieved at this level.
WTOL and BCSN's Sports Nightly stopped out to practice this evening. WTOL's feature, which will highlight sophomore Brooke Gyori (Clay/Oregon, Ohio) will air on Thursday at 5:45 p.m. on the local WTOL station. The BCSN Sports Nightly feature will air at 10:30 p.m. this evening. Both Gyori and Tyanna Smith (Bowling Green/Bowling Green, Ohio) were interviewed for the BCSN feature.