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IRVINE, Calif. » All signs point to the University of Hawaii volleyball team earning an at-large invitation to the NCAA tournament’s play-in round Tuesday at Stanford, Calif.
The second-seeded Rainbow Warriors lost to No. 3 Pepperdine in Thursday’s Mountain Pacific Sports Federation semifinal match in the Bren Center. But the at-large opportunity opened when UC Irvine, ranked No. 1 nationally and in this tournament, defeated Pepperdine in Friday’s night’s MPSF title match. Irvine earned the league’s automatic berth in the NCAA tournament.
An MPSF official told the Warriors they met the majority of the nine-point criteria to earn an advantage over Pepperdine. The Warriors were ranked No. 1 for five weeks through the end of the regular season, and won both previous matches against the Waves.
The NCAA will announce the tournament field on its Web site at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday.
UH coach Charlie Wade said the Warriors are deserving of an at-large berth. He based that on the "year that we had, the resume we put together and criteria that had been published. We have most of the boxes checked off."
But Wade cautioned that the Warriors are in a "wait-and-see mode" until the announcement.
"I’ve been around long enough to know — not just the teams I’ve been associated with — but Hawaii’s been disappointed before," Wade said. "Until we see our name on the big board or the monitor, we’ll keep praying."
UH middle blocker Davis Holt said: "I’m not trying to get my emotions up and down, like a roller coaster, but it’s good so far. When you leave it in other people’s hands, crazy things happen. If it’s computer, maybe we’ll have a better chance. But people don’t make the smartest decisions all the time."
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