College Volleyball: Whitworth travels to Dallas for opening round of D-III tournament

Whitworth will travel to the Dallas Regional for the opening rounds of the NCAA Division III volleyball tournament and will take on host UT-Dallas in the first round on Friday night in Richardson, Texas.

Official start times for Friday’s first round matches are still to be determined.

It is the second straight season that the Comets and the Pirates will meet up in the first round of the NCAA tournament. UT-Dallas won the 2015 matchup in four sets.

Whitworth (21-5) won the Northwest Conference with a 15-1 record, four games clear of runner-up Pacific Lutheran. The Pirates are making their third straight trip to the NCAA tournament and eighth since 2001.

UT-Dallas is 30-2 and ranked third in the most recent AVCA Division III coaches poll.

The rest of the field that comprised the eight-team field in Dallas includes Trinity (Texas) (27-7), Hendrix (24-7), Southwestern (Texas) (30-4), La Verne (22-6), Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (23-3) and Colorado College (27-5).

The winners of each of the eight NCAA Division III regionals around the country will advance to play at the NCAA Finals in Oshkosh, Wisconsin Nov. 17-19.

Kahler, White, Bodecker earn conference honors

Whitworth’s Emiko Kahler and Erin White were named to the All-Northwest Conference volleyball first team, while coach Kati Bodecker was named coach of the year.

Kahler was also named conference Freshman of the Year.

Senior Brenna Bruil and junior Cassandra Mendoza were named to the second team. For Mendoza, it’s her second consecutive season named to the second team, while Bruil was an honorable mention last season.

WSU drops from national rankings

After a several-week run in the national rankings, Washington State (17-9, 7-7 Pac-12) was among schools receiving votes in the Nov. 4 AVCA Coaches Top 25 Poll.

The Cougars are in eighth place in the Pac-12 and fighting for an NCAA Tournament bid. WSU hosts Arizona State (9-17, 2-12) on Friday at 7 p.m. and No. 25 Arizona (16-10, 8-6) on Sunday at 11 a.m.

WSU defeated ASU 3-0 in Tempe and defeated Arizona 3-0 in Tucson earlier this season.