ST. LOUIS, Mo. – After finishing runner-up at the 2024 UAA Tournament, the No. 11 Washington University in St. Louis volleyball team was selected for an at-large bid into the 2024 NCAA Tournament, beginning this weekend.
WashU will be le by six players who were named UAA All-Association earlier today. Junior Sam Buckley was named the UAA Player of the Year along with First Team honors. Joining her on the top squad is graduate Lily Steinbach. Seniors Zoe Foster and Jasmine Sells along with sophomore Leah Oyewole were named Second Team All-Association. Senior Elise Gilroy was selected to the Honorable Mention team.
The Bears are 28-6 on the season following the UAA Tournament with a 12-6 record against teams in the tournament. Sells leads the team with 338 kills with Oyewole in second with 311, Foster is third with 283 and Steinbach is fourth with 231. Gilroy and Sells are the top two in digs with 522 and 440, respectively. Buckley is currently sixth all-time at WashU in assists with 3,797, including her 1,406 this season. Foster leads on the defensive side of the net with 112 total blocks while Steinbach is second with 108.
WashU will open their tournament run against the College of Saint Benedict on Thursday, Nov. 21. The Bennies, the MIAC Tournament Champion, comes into the NCAA Tournament winning 17 of their past 19 matches including a 3-0 sweep of St. Catherine's in the MIAC Championship Game. The two teams have meet twice before with CSB winning the most recent match up last season, 3-2, on Sept. 13, 2023. Coincidentally, that match also took place in Whitewater.
The winner will then face off against the winner of No. 17 Wisconsin-Platteville and Edgewood. UW Platteville is coming off a run to the semifinals of the WIAC Tournament, where they fell to No. 5 Wisconsin-Oshkosh, 3-2. They are currently 25-6 on the season. The Edgewood Eagles are 24-9 on the season after claiming a 3-0 win over Concordia-Wisconsin in the NACC Championship Game. The two teams have met one time this season with the Pioneers taking a 3-0 sweep of the Eagles back on Sept. 3.
On the other half of the bracket, host No. 7 UW-Whitewater, who is 26-3 on the season, faces off against the Ohio Wesleyan Battling Bishops (16-12) in a first round matchup. The Warhawks enter the tournament with the automatic bid from the WIAC after claiming a 3-2 win over Wisconsin-Oshkosh in the championship match. UWW played a pair of matches at WashU this season during the WashU Invitational, but they have not played the Bears this season. OWU is another automatic bid into the tournament after claiming the NCAC title over Denison, 3-2.
The final first round matchup in Whitewater features the Blugolds of No. 24 Wisconsin-Eau Claire and the No. 23 Northwestern-St. Paul Eagles. UW-EC (20-8) fell to UW-Platteville in the first round of the WIAC tournament as the tournament's number four seed, 3-0. The Eagles enter the tournament with a 24-8 record after claiming the UMAC Tournament championship over Wisconsin-Superior.
The Bears and Bennies will be second game of the day on Thursday with first serve scheduled for 2 p.m. at Russell Arena.
