NEW ORLEANS — Xavier University of Louisiana will travel to play 15th-ranked College of Idaho at 2 p.m. MST Saturday in the 2015 NAIA Volleyball National Championship Opening Round. The NAIA announced Monday the tournament pairings, which include 36 teams and 12 matches this weekend.
The venue will be C of I's J.A. Albertson Activities Center in Caldwell, Idaho, a suburb of Boise.
It will be the longest-ever trip for XU volleyball — it's 1,741 miles as the crow flies from New Orleans to Caldwell — and the Gold Nuggets' first match in the Mountain Time Zone.
Both Xavier (19-7) and College of Idaho (21-10) qualified with automatic bids after winning conference tournaments Saturday. The Gold Nuggets earned the Gulf Coast Athletic title for the fifth consecutive year, and the Lady Coyotes won the Cascade Collegiate for the fourth straight time.
The Gold Nuggets are 0-4 in first-round appearances at nationals.
Saturday winners will join the top 12 seeds in Sioux City, Iowa, for pool play Dec. 1-5.
Xavier extended its win streak to 11 — the second longest in program history — by defeating SUNO in four sets in the GCAC Tournament final at Little Rock, Ark.
The Gold Nuggets feature six seniors: Darian Harris, Claudia Haywood, Jodi Hill, Franziska Pirkl, Taylor Reuther and CeCe Williams. All are top-3 or higher in one or more XU career statistical categories. Reuther is the XU all-time leader in sets played, kills, aces, digs and attack attempts, and Pirkl is No. 1 in career assists.
College of Idaho is led by senior Kylie Porter, a 6-foot-3 middle blocker and the 2015 Cascade Player of the Year. Porter hit .413 in conference matches and was a two-time NAIA National Attacker of the Week this season.
Ed Cassiere, Sports Information DirectorXULAgold.com
XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA
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