Big South Announces 2018 Volleyball Championship Seedings & Pairings
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (www.BigSouthSports.com) – For the second consecutive year, High Point University is the No. 1 seed in the Big South Volleyball Championship presented by Musco Sports Lighting, which will be contested Nov. 16-18 at the Justice Center on the campus of UNC Asheville in Asheville, N.C. The Panthers finished with a 14-2 league record to win the outright Big South regular-season title for the second-straight year. It is HPU’s third overall regular-season crown, as the Panthers were co-champions in 2008 and the outright winner in 2017.
Defending champion Radford is the No. 2 seed based on its final Big South record of 12-4, and will attempt to become the first back-to-back champion since 2014-15. Both High Point and Radford earn byes into the semifinals in the six-team championship format, and open postseason play on Saturday, Nov. 17.
Winthrop ended 11-5 in the standings to land the No. 3 seed -- its highest in the tournament since 2011, followed by host UNC Asheville in fourth-place at 10-6 for the No. 4 seed. The Bulldogs recorded their first 10-win Big South season since 2010. USC Upstate and Charleston Southern tied for fifth with 8-8 Big South records. The Spartans received the No. 5 seed based on its head-to-head victory over the Buccaneers on Oct. 20, with CSU sliding into the sixth and final seed.
The 2018 Big South Volleyball Championship begins Friday, Nov. 16, with No. 3 Winthrop vs. No. 6 Charleston Southern in the first quarterfinal match at 4:30pm, followed by No. 4 UNC Asheville and No. 5 USC Upstate at 7:00pm. Saturday’s semifinal schedule will begin with High Point against the winner of Asheville/Upstate at 4:30pm, and concludes with Radford vs. the Winthrop/Charleston Southern winner at 7:00pm. The quarterfinals and semifinals will be broadcast on ESPN+, 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. 16 – Quarterfinals (ESPN+)
Match 1: No. 3 Winthrop vs. No. 6 Charleston Southern, 4:30pm ET
Match 2: No. 4 UNC Asheville vs. No. 5 USC Upstate, 7:00pm ET
Saturday, Nov. 17 – Semifinals (ESPN+)
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. 18 – Championship (ESPN3)
Match 5: Match 3 winner vs. Match 4 winner, 4:00pm ET