The College of Charleston will travel to Duke University for the first round of the NCAA Volleyball Tournament, as announced on ESPNU on Sunday night. The Cougars and Blue Devils will face off on Friday, Dec. 6 at 7:30 p.m. in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
The Cougars will face the ACC Champion Blue Devils (27-4) in the first round of the tournament, while Georgia (22-9) faces American (32-2) in the other side of the quadrant. Charleston was selected as the four seed in the grouping, while Duke is the 16th national seed, the lowest-seeded host in the tournament.
College of Charleston is 0-3 all-time against Duke, with the last matchup coming in 2009 in a tournament at Duke.
“I’m excited for our team and pleased with our draw for the Tournament,” said head coach Jason Kepner. “We’re happy to be traveling just a short distance away, and know that we will have a big challenge against the ACC champions. Duke is a great team and we will have to execute well to give ourselves a chance to be successful.”
College of Charleston (25-5) will be making its second consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament, and eighth in the last 13 years, as the Cougars won the CAA’s automatic bid with a dramatic 3-1 win over Northeastern in the conference tournament final on Sunday at the North Charleston Convention Center. The Cougars have won 13-straight conference regular season or tournament titles, the second-longest streak in the nation.
The victory marked a dramatic first year in the CAA where CofC won the regular season (13-1), conference tournament and all major awards with Darcy Dorton (Player of the Year), Jason Kepner (Coach of the Year) and Kallie McKown (Setter of the Year) taking home hardware. Five Cougars, Dorton, Sloane White, Cara Howley, Melissa Morello and Kerstin Koehler, led all schools on the All-CAA teams, and Dorton was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.
Last season, CofC was picked as a three seed in the NCAA Gainesville Bracket, winning the first-round match over No. 23 Miami (Fla.) for the Cougars’ second-ever NCAA Tournament victory. CofC is 2-7 in NCAA Tournament play all-time with both wins coming over ACC schools: North Carolina (2005) and Miami (2012).
