November 7, 2016
Whitewater Regional Website - NCAA Regional Bracket
For the fourth consecutive season and the fifth time in the past seven years, Coach Yarnell and his Bluffton University volleyball team will play in the NCAA Regionals following their Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament championship win at host and #1 seed Hanover. The Beavers will travel nearly 350 miles for a date with #17-ranked Wisconsin-Oshkosh on Thursday, November 10, 2016. The contest takes place on the campus of #1 seed and #11-ranked Wisconsin-Whitewater in Whitewater, Wis.
UW-Oshkosh (28-7) will be making its 17th appearance in the national tournament but first since 2014. The Titans were winners of seven straight before falling to Wisconsin-La Crosse in the WIAC semifinals. UW-Oshkosh finished in a three-way tie with Wisconsin-La Crosse and Wisconsin-Whitewater for first place in the WIAC standings, marking the Titans' second straight and 12th conference championship.
The Titans, leading the country with 337.5 blocks while ranking second nationally with 2.66 blocks per set, earned the second seed at the Whitewater Regional while Bluffton University (23-8) is seeded seventh. The Titans and Beavers will play in the regional's second match on Thursday at 4 p.m. Ohio time. Wisconsin-Oshkosh won the only previous meeting between the two schools in three sets at Elmhurst in 1996.
Third-seeded Washington University in St. Louis, the team that knocked Bluffton out of the 2014 NCAA Tournament, will oppose sixth-seeded Heidelberg University in the regional's opening match at 1:30 p.m. while fourth-seeded Hope College (Mich.) battles fifth-seeded Elmhurst College (Ill.) at 6:30 p.m. Thursday's final match has top-seeded UW-Whitewater hosting eighth-seeded Greenville College (Ill.) at 9 p.m.
Bluffton holds a 2-1 mark against teams from the Whitewater Regional this season. The Beavers took down #1 seed Whitewater on Saturday, Sept. 3 before falling to the host Blue Jays later that day at the Elmhurst Volleyball Invitational. A week later, the Beavers defeated Heidelberg on day one of the Sommer Center Spiketacular in four sets for their second win over the Student Princes in the last three seasons.
The winners of Thursday's matches will meet Friday, Nov. 11, with the #3/#6 and #2/#7 victors playing at 5:30 p.m. The Whitewater Regional championship clash is slated for 8 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 12.
This will be Bluffton's eighth appearance in the NCAA Tournament with five coming in the last eight years. Bluffton went three times between 1994 and 1997 before Coach Yarnell made his first trip in 2009 when the Beavers (27-6 overall) traveled to Hope College for a first-round matchup with Ohio Northern after rolling through the HCAC with a perfect 8-0 mark.
Bluffton followed that up with an improbable run to the tourney in 2013 when they became the first #6 seed to make it through the HCAC tournament with a 3-0 mark that culminated with a four-set victory over another surprise finalist, #5 seeded Hanover College. Bluffton fell to #10 Wittenberg (25-16, 25-19, 25-20) in the first round at Calvin College following their 2013 HCAC title.
The Beavers entered the 2014 HCAC tournament as the #2 seed and dispatched Hanover in three sets before taking down regular season champion Defiance for the second time of the season in the conference finals. Bluffton fell at #7 Washington (Mo.) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament by scores of 25-17, 25-15 and 25-16.
With a 19-12 overall record, Bluffton had a target on its back all season as the pre-season HCAC favorite in 2015. The Beavers went to Hanover with a 6-0 mark, but the Panthers kept their spotless HCAC record intact with a thrilling five-set victory ensuring that the tournament would run through Hanover. The Beavers rallied in each set for a stunning sweep of Hanover with the NCAA berth on the line. It marked the fifth HCAC championship game for the Beavers in seven seasons with four titles during that span, including three consecutive for Bluffton.
A 12-1 run late in the first set propelled Bluffton to a 25-20 victory over #6-ranked Wittenberg at Juniata in the first round of the 2015 NCAA Regional Tournament before the Tigers moved on in four sets.
Bluffton seniors MacKenzie McFarlin and Lauren Weisgarber became the first volleyball players in Bluffton University history to finish their HCAC tournament careers with an unblemished record when the Beavers knocked Hanover out of the HCAC Tournament for the fourth straight season on Saturday. They are 9-0 over the past four years with all of those victories on the road!
The Beavers have compiled a 223-161 record since Coach Yarnell took the reins in 2005. They have won at least 20 matches in six of the past nine years while going 59-20 in Heartland Conference action since 2008!
-BEAVERS-
