UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Penn State Women’s Volleyball received the No. 3 overall seed for the NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Tournament, as announced during the NCAA Selection Show aired on ESPN on Sunday night. As the top seed in their region, the Nittany Lions will host the first and second rounds at Rec Hall on Friday and Saturday.
Penn State welcomes Delaware State to Rec Hall for its first-round matchup on Friday at 7:30 p.m. The Hornets went 17-13 overall and earned an automatic bid thanks to their win over Howard in the final round of the MEAC Championship. They last made the NCAA Tournament in 2022 when they lost to Nebraska in the opening round.
Friday marks just the second meeting all-time and the first in the NCAA Tournament between Penn State and Delaware State. The Nittany Lions swept the Hornets in the only match between the teams in 2007.
The other first-round matchup at Rec Hall features North Carolina and Yale on Friday at 5 p.m. The Tar Heels are coached by Mike Schall, while the Bulldogs are led by Erin Appleman. Those two head coaches were assistants on Russ Rose’s staff the year current Penn State head coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley won a national title as a player with the Nittany Lions in 1999.
North Carolina received an at-large bid and the No. 8 seed in the regional after going 22-7 overall and 14-6 in the ACC. The Tar Heels were 2-0 against Big Ten teams this season with wins over Michigan and Michigan State. Penn State holds a 7-1 all-time record against North Carolina, but the teams have never met in the NCAA Tournament. They have played each other three times at Rec Hall, with the Nittany Lions winning in 1987 and 2001 and the Tar Heels coming out on top in 2016.
Yale enters at 19-5 overall and was the automatic qualifier out of the Ivy league for the third-straight year. Penn State and Yale played in the first round of last year’s NCAA Tournament in Lawrence, Kansas. The Nittany Lions won that matchup 3-1. Overall, the Nittany Lions are a perfect 12-0 against the Bulldogs, including a 6-0 record at Rec Hall. The most recent of those matchups was earlier this season.
The winners of the two matches on Friday will meet in a second-round pairing on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. If Penn State advances, the semifinal and final matches of its region would also be played at Rec Hall.
Penn State is in the NCAA Tournament for the 44th-consecutive season. It is the only program in the nation to play in all 44 Division I Championships since the inaugural event in 1981. The Nittany Lions earned the overall No. 3 seed thanks to a 29-2 overall record and a 19-1 mark that helped them secure the 18th Big Ten title in program history.
Tickets for the NCAA first and second rounds at Rec Hall go on sale Monday at 9 a.m.