The perfect capstone to senior defensive specialist Lizzie Carlson’s college career would be a third trip to the NCAA tournament.
Carlson recalled how exciting it was to make the tournament her freshman and sophomore seasons and said she hopes the Cats, despite their 3-9 conference record, will make it again.
“My freshman year we hadn’t made the tournament since 1984,” Carlson said. “There was this one moment when we were all watching when they do the brackets – everyone finds out in real time on TV – and our whole team was huddled around the TV waiting to see if our name appeared. The second it appeared everyone went crazy. We had done something that so many teams hadn’t been able to do for 20 years.”
The Cats begin their push toward an NCAA tournament bid tonight against No. 15 Purdue (20-3, 9-3 Big Ten) and Saturday against Illinois (13-10, 4-8 Big Ten). Both games will be at 7 p.m. at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
It’s still possible for the Cats to make the NCAA tournament this season, but they’re running out of time.
Every year, a committee made up of athletic directors and conference commissioners decide how many tournament slots will be allotted to each conference. Each conference is given at least one spot, so technically only the team that wins the Big Ten tournament will be guaranteed a bid.
Because the Big Ten is such a tough volleyball conference, usually six-to-eight teams are allowed. In addition, all teams must have above a .500 overall record to go to the tournament.
The Cats therefore must win at least five of their last eight matches in order to have any chance. Even then, depending on how the other Big Ten teams perform and how many berths the conference is awarded, NU may still not get to go.
“It’s kind of an enigma – no one really knows,” Chan said. “The Big Ten’s always gotten six, seven or eight teams into the NCAA tournament. If they only take five, that means six, seven and eight are out, which would be really odd. But our records aren’t what they usually are, and some of that is just because our conference is so good.”
Winning five matches will be a tall order for the Cats – they only defeated three of the teams they have yet to play in the first half of the season. But Chan remains optimistic, especially in light of the last two matches. While NU lost last weekend to Ohio State and Penn State, Chan feels the Cats played extremely well against the two ranked teams.
“Teams six, seven, eight and nine right now are all within a game of each other, and they’re all below .500 in conference. It’s the best I’ve ever seen this conference, from top to bottom,” Chan said. “Our team is good – I like our girls, and we have good chances. It’s just really hard to win. But we can do it.”
Reach Annie Martin at [email protected]
