2017 Volleyball Championship Seedings and Pairings Announced
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (www.BigSouthSports.com) – For the first time, High Point University is the No. 1 seed in the Big South Volleyball Championship presented by Musco Sports Lighting, which will be contested Nov. 17-19 at the Dedmon Center on the campus of Radford University in Radford, Va. The defending champion Panthers finished with a perfect 16-0 league record to win the outright Big South regular-season title for the first time, as well as become the first Big South team to complete a 16-0 conference season. It is HPU’s second overall regular-season crown, as the Panthers were co-champions in 2008.
Host Radford is the No. 2 seed based on its final Big South record of 13-3, and will attempt to become the first host to win the tournament since 2014. Both High Point and Radford earn byes into the semifinals in the six-team championship format, and open postseason play on Saturday, Nov. 18.
Campbell ended 10-6 in the standings for the second straight year to land the No. 3 seed, followed by UNC Asheville in fourth-place at 9-7 for the No. 4 seed. Liberty and Winthrop tied for fifth with 8-8 Big South records. As the teams split the season series, the next tiebreaker of percentage of sets won in the head-to-head meetings gave the Lady Flames the No. 5 seed, as LU won 62.5 percent of the eight sets played with the Eagles (5 to 3) and dropped WU to the No. 6 seed.
The 2017 Big South Volleyball Championship begins Friday, Nov. 17, with No. 4 UNC Asheville vs. No. 5 Liberty in the first quarterfinal match at 4:30pm, followed by No. 3 Campbell and No. 6 Winthrop at 7:00pm. Saturday’s semifinal schedule will begin with High Point against the winner of Asheville/Liberty at 4:30pm, and concludes with Radford vs. the Campbell/Winthrop winner at 7:00pm. The quarterfinals and semifinals will be broadcast live for FREE on the Big South Network and on Roku, while Sunday’s title match will be broadcast live on ESPN3 at 4:00pm. The Big South’s Tournament champion receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Volleyball Championship. The Championship schedule is as follows:
Friday, Nov. 17 – Quarterfinals (Big South Network/Roku)
Match 1: No. 4 UNC Asheville vs. No. 5 Liberty, 4:30pm ET
Match 2: No. 3 Campbell vs. No. 6 Winthrop, 7:00pm ET
Saturday, Nov. 18 – Semifinals (Big South Network/Roku)
Match 3: No. 1 High Point vs. 4/5 winner, 4:30pm ET
Match 4: No. 2 Radford vs. 3/6 winner, 7:00pm ET
Sunday, Nov. 19 – Championship (ESPN3)
Match 5: Match 3 winner vs. Match 4 winner, 4:00pm ET