November 12, 2013

BLUFFTON, Ohio - Following an improbable Heartland Conference tournament run that saw the Beavers rally from 2-0 deficits to #3 seed Mount St. Joseph and #2 seed Transylvania, the Bluffton University volleyball team will kick off the NCAA Division III Championship on Thursday, Nov. 14, when they travel to Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., for a first-round match in the NCAA Regional against Wittenberg University. The Beavers (16-18) and the No. 10 ranked Tigers (23-8), which dominated the NCAC tournament for a seventh consecutive title, will meet Thursday at 12:30 PM in the first match of the day from the Van Noord Arena.

Wittenberg won the NCAA Division III national championship in 2011 and will be making the school's 19th NCAA Tournament appearance.  The Tigers hold a 32-17 all-time record in the NCAA Tournament. Seven of Wittenberg's losses this season have come to nationally-ranked programs with the other setback to NCAA Division II Cedarville University.

This will be Bluffton's fifth appearance in the NCAA Tournament and first since 2009 when the Beavers (27-6 overall) traveled to Hope College for a first-round matchup with Ohio Northern after rolling through the HCAC with a perfect 8-0 mark.

A victory by Bluffton would propel them into a semifinal match against the winner of Buffalo State (25-9) vs. Chicago (26-10) at 4:30 p.m. on Friday. The Beavers defeated Buffalo State 3-1 at Allegheny on Sept. 13 by a 3-1 margin. Set scores with the Bengals were: 25-21, 17-25, 25-21, 25-22.

Mount Union (30-4), Carnegie Mellon (25-9), Penn St.-Behrend (22-8), and #1 seed Calvin (29-1) will also take part in the Calvin Regional. Live stats for the entire tournament can be found at: http://www.calvin.edu/scoreboard/. Live video is available at: http://new.livestream.com/calvin-college.

-BEAVERS-