Sooners Selected for NCAA Tournament

NORMAN – For the first time since the 2014 season, the Oklahoma volleyball team is heading to the NCAA Tournament. The Sooners, who finished the regular season 19-8 overall and third in the Big 12 at 10-5, face Rice at Texas A&M in College Station, Texas, on Dec. 5 at 4:30 p.m. CT

The Aggies, seeded 13th in the tournament field, host St. John's in their first round match. The winners will face off in the second round on Dec. 6 at 6:30 p.m. CT.

"It's exciting," head coach Lindsey Gray-Walton said. "Not too many times do you get the surprise of seeing your name go up. It's either a pretty good idea that you're going to be a host or you're out. When you kind of know that you have a chance to be in and it's looking pretty good, the excitement of when it goes up on the screen, that's always awesome. This team has earned it. To sit back and watch that pure reaction come out, I think we all felt it."

For Oklahoma, it's the 12^th overall appearance in program history. The Sooners, who will be making their first appearance under Gray-Walton, are 10-11 all-time in the NCAA Tournament.

"Tradition has been here before," Gray-Walton said. "It just needed some more love and that's why we came here. We knew it could be done here. We knew with the people that we're already here that it could be done. We could do it with the pieces that we're here and we just needed to add a couple of enhancements that made us the full package. It's really cool to see them buy in and believe in it."

The Sooners and Owls have faced off six times, with the last meeting coming in 2009. OU leads the all-time series, 4-2, and swept Rice in Houston in 2009. OU has faced St. John's just once back in 1998 and is no stranger to Texas A&M as the former conference foes have met 46 times with the Aggies leading the all-time series 38-8.

"It's unbelievable," junior Keyton Kinley said. "That was our goal at the beginning of the year and to see all the work we put in really come to life, it's the best feeling. It's really indescribable."

The Final Four and National Championship will be held at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pa., on December 19 and 21.

The Sooners last advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 2014, falling to LSU in the first round.

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