ST. PAUL, MINN. – The Pacific Lutheran volleyball team will face the Augsburg College Auggies in an opening-round match of the NCAA Div. III regional tournament on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. Central Standard Time at University of St. Thomas' Schoenecker Arena. Live stats as well as video and audio streaming will be available on the PLU athletics website.
The Lutes will be making their ninth tournament appearance while the Auggies received just their second volleyball national tournament berth in their program's history (last appearance in 1982).
"We'll play Augsburg, who we don't know a whole lot about," head coach Kevin Aoki said. "We're excited to be back in the tournament. Our goal is to get by the first round and maybe the second round then third round in hopes of making it to Michigan next weekend."
PLU finished regular-season play 19-5, 15-1 in the Northwest Conference. In addition to naming five student-athletes to the 2013 All-NWC Volleyball Teams, the Lutes swept the postseason conference awards with Samantha North named Player of the Year, Amber Aguiar named Libero of the Year and head coach Kevin Aoki named Coach of the Year.
North finished regular season play averaging 10.41 assists per set, ranking in the top 20 among NCAA Div. III national leaders. Aguiar averaged 6.33 digs per set landing her in the top five in the nation.
The Lutes have maintained a balanced offensive attack throughout the season. Sophomore Lucy Capron finished regular season play leading PLU with 2.36 kills per set. Senior outside hitter Haley Urdahl contributed 2.34 kills and 3.27 digs per set. Senior middle blocker Bethany Huston averaged 2.27 kills per set with a team-leading .301 attack percentage and 89 blocks. Junior middle blocker Amy Wooten added 2.2 kills per set this season and 64 total blocks. Huston received second-team all-conference honors while Urdahl and Wooten received honorable mentions.
Augsburg College ended their regular season with a 10-1 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference record, 28-4 overall. The Auggies finished with a shared MIAC title with the regional tournament host St. Thomas Tommies and received one of the 19 "Pool C" at-large bids for the national tournament.
For the Auggies this season, sophomore right side hitter Ashley Peper led offensively with 4.53 kills per set which ranks her sixth among NCAA Div. III national leaders. Senior outside hitter Colleen Ourada added 3.83 kills per set. Senior setter Emily McCourt ranks third in the nation with her 11.57 assists per set stat. Defensively, senior Katelyn Berens averaged 5.01 digs per set, while first year middle hitter Taylor Trautman led with 81 total blocks.
The winners of Thursday's first two matches will meet at 4:30 p.m. CST on Friday with the winners of Thursday's last two matches meeting at 7 p.m. CST on Friday. The regional championship will be held on Saturday at 7 p.m. CST.
