The National Invitational Volleyball Championship’s bracket was released on Nov. 28, and it means volleyball is coming back to the Swenson Gym.
The NIVC includes a 32-team lineup and is in its fourth year. The ‘Cats previously fell to Tulsa in 2019 during the quarterfinals.
The Wildcats were selected as an automatic qualifier for the 2021 tournament.
In their last match, the ‘Cats fell in a five-set thriller to Big Sky rival, the University of Northern Colorado, on Nov. 20 in the Big Sky Championship match. The Bears crushed the Wildcats’ 27-home-match winning streak, and it looked to be the end of the season.
The ‘Cats finished their season 20–9 overall and 13–3 in conference. Weber State recently fell to Portland State, Sacramento State and Northern Colorado.
Portland State is the only other Big Sky school participating in the NIVC tournament.
Weber State was selected to host the first and second rounds of the tournament, and this will be the first time in program history for the Wildcats to host a postseason tournament outside of their conference.
Swenson gym will host its first NIVC match of the day when the University of the Pacific and Portland State go head-to-head at 2 p.m. on Dec. 3.
Later that night, the ‘Cats will take on the Cal State Bakersfield Roadrunners at 7 p.m. CSUB belongs to the Big West Conference and finished their season 18–10 overall and 11–19 in conference.
The two programs have only met once before when the Roadrunners traveled to Ogden and fell to the ‘Cats in a four-set match on Oct. 2, 2008.
The winning squad from each match will play against one another on Dec. 4 at 2 p.m. and the third-round matches will be held Dec. 6-8.
