COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - The Tennessee Tech volleyball team qualified for the OVC Tournament with a fifth place conference finish in the regular season and will begin play at the post-season conference tournament on Thursday in Jacksonville, Alabama. The three-day tournament will run from Thursday, November 19 through Saturday, November 21.
The Golden Eagles posted a 9-9 record in the OVC this season after beginning the year with a 1-8 mark in pre-conference tournaments.
Six teams qualified for the OVC Tournament with the top seed being Jacksonville State who finished with a 17-1 record in conference play. Following the Gamecocks are second-seeded Austin Peay (15-3 OVC), third-seed Morehead State (11-6), fourth-seed Murray State (11-7), fifth-seed Tennessee Tech (9-9) and sixth-seed Eastern Kentucky (8-10).
Tech will face off against Murray State on Thursday evening in the first of two opening-round matches. Game time is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. with the other first-round match between Morehead State and Eastern Kentucky set to begin at 7 p.m. See below for a complete schedule of matches for the OVC Tournament.
Tech and Murray State have spilt their two matches this season. In the first meeting between, the Golden Eagles won a five-set marathon at Eblen Center, while Murray won most recently, 3-0, on its home floor.
A win against Murray State would set up a semi-final matchup between the Golden Eagles and host-school Jacksonville State.
The Golden Eagles will seek to defend their OVC crown that they won during the 2008 season. Tech won both the OVC regular season and tournament titles last year, the second of which gave the Golden Eagles an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.
After losing their first three matches of their OVC schedule this season against Southeast Missouri State, Eastern Illinois and Jacksonville State, the Golden Eagles won seven of their next eight matches to put them in the hunt for their second straight regular season title midway through the season.
Tech then split its next four matches before falling in three straight against Austin Peay, Morehead State and Eastern Kentucky to settle into fifth place at the end of the regular season.
Golden Eagle fans can follow the action all weekend long on OVCSports.tv, which will have Web streams of every match. Also, live stats and a complete OVC Tournament home page can be viewed at jsugamecocksports.com.
2009 OVC VOLLEYBALL TOURNAMENT - Jacksonville, Ala.
THURSDAY,
NOVEMBER 19 - FIRST ROUNDS
Match 1 - #4 Murray State vs. #5 Tennessee
Tech - 4:30 p.m. (OVCSports.TV)
Match 2 - #3 Morehead State vs. #6 Eastern
Kentucky - 7:00 p.m. (OVCSports.TV)
FRIDAY,
NOVEMBER 20 - SEMIFINALS
Match 3 - #1 Jacksonville State vs. Match 1
winner - 4:30 p.m. (OVCSports.TV)
Match 4 - #2 Austin Peay vs. Match 2 winner - 7:00
p.m. (OVCSports.TV)
SATURDAY,
NOVEMBER 21 - FINALS
Match 5 - Championship - 7:30 p.m.
(OVCSports.TV)
