Francis Marion Draws Lenoir-Rhyne in NCAA Division II Women’s Volleyball National Tournament
GREENVILLE, S.C. – Conference Carolinas newcomer, Francis Marion, won the 2021 Conference Carolinas Women’s Volleyball Championship and received the automatic bid to the 2021 NCAA Division II Women’s Volleyball Championship where they will face Southeast Region top seed Lenoir-Rhyne.
The Patriots are 21-10 on the season, the most wins in the last 13 seasons for the Florence, South Carolina program. They are making their fourth trip to the NCAA Tournament (1995, 2005, 2008).
The Francis Marion - Lenoir-Rhyne (22-7) winner will square off against fourth-seeded Wingate (23-4) or fifth-seeded Flagler (21-5) in the second round. In the other part of the bracket No. 2 Anderson (22-7), the Southeast Regional host, faces No. 7 Mars Hill (21-12) and No. 3 Tusculum (20-5) faces Augusta (22-8).
Lenoir-Rhyne won this past weekend's South Atlantic Conference Tournament as the fourth seed. The all-time series with the Bears is deadlocked at 10-10. Lenoir-Rhyne won the most recent meeting in 2019, while the Patriots were victorious in 2018.
The 64-team field includes 23 automatic qualifiers and 41 at-large selections. The eight regional tournaments will be held on campus sites December 2-4. The winners of the eight regional tournaments will advance to the Elite Eight to be held December 9-11 at the Bob Martinez Athletics Center in Tampa, Fla.
The 2020 tournament was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, 2019 champion Cal State San Bernardino is still the defending champion.
More information will be available in the near future. Fans can watch the full selection show video here. The interactive tournament bracket is available
here. Read the Francis Marion release
here.