Nov. 11, 2007

IRVING, Texas -

2007 C-USA Championships Bracket in PDF Format

With an 11-5 finish in Conference USA regular season action, the University of Memphis volleyball team earned the No. 5 seed in the upcoming C-USA Championship held in Huntington, W.V., Nov. 15-18. The Tigers, who just missed a fourth-place finish and first-round bye, will wrap up day one of the tournament (Nov. 15) with a third battle against UCF at 7 p.m. EST.

Winners of nine of its last 12 conference matches, Memphis will carry a 22-11 mark into the postseason. They dropped the regular season finale to Marshall, who claimed its second Conference USA regular season title outright in three years with the win.

A UofM victory in the opening round would set up a second-round battle with No. 4 Tulsa at 7 p.m. on Fri., Nov. 16. Tulsa, 11-5 in C-USA, won the fourth-seed and first-round bye via the tiebreaker over Memphis. The Golden Hurricane defeated the Tigers 3-1 on Nov. 4.

The Thundering Herd take the No. 1 seed in the C-USA Volleyball Championship after racing to a 15-1 league record. That mark is identical to its 2005 league record­­­­--when the program won the 2005 regular season and tournament titles. The Herd also sports an overall record of 22-8 and went 7-1 at home during league play. The C-USA Volleyball Championship begins on Thurs., Nov. 15 at the Cam Henderson Center on the campus of Marshall University and concludes Sunday, Nov. 18 with the title match on CSTV at 6 p.m.

Thursday's action will begin at noon with No. 7 seed Rice (12-16, 7-9) taking on No. 10 seed UTEP (9-19, 3-13), followed by No. 6 seed Houston (13-14, 8-8) facing No. 11 seed Southern Miss (12-20, 3-13) at 2 p.m. The night session features No. 8 seed East Carolina (15-16, 6-10) against No. 9 seed SMU (16-14, 6-10) at 5 p.m., followed by the Tigers contest with the Knights at 7 p.m.

Marshall, who's on a nine-match winning streak and winners of 16 of the last 17 matches, will face either East Carolina or SMU in second-round action on Friday at 5 p.m. Tulane (26-5, 14-2), UAB (22-8, 12-4) and Tulsa (24-8, 11-5), 2006 C-USA regular season champion, round out the top four seeds and will also receive first round byes.

Tulane's, also winners of nine-straight, first action will be against the winner of the Rice/UTEP match at 12 p.m. on Friday, followed by the defending 2006 tournament champion, UAB Blazers at 2 p.m. The Blazers will face the winner of the Houston/Southern Miss match. No. 4 Tulsa wraps up the quarterfinals with a 7 p.m. match against either Memphis/UCF. Saturday's semifinals begin at 4 p.m., while the second match is slated for 6 p.m. Sunday's championship begins at 6 p.m. and will be aired LIVE on CSTV. All times are Eastern.

2007 C-USA VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
Cam Henderson Center (Huntington, W.Va.)


FIRST ROUND
Thursday, Nov. 15
(10) UTEP vs. (7) Rice                12 p.m.
(11) Southern Miss vs. (6) Houston     2 p.m.
(9) SMU vs. (8) East Carolina          5 p.m.
(12) UCF vs. (5) Memphis               7 p.m.


QUARTERFINAL
Friday, Nov. 16
winner of Match 1 vs. (2) Tulane      12 p.m.
winner of Match 2 vs. (3) UAB          2 p.m.
winner of Match 3 vs. (1) Marshall     5 p.m.
winner of Match 4 vs. (4) Tulsa        7 p.m.


SEMIFINALS
Saturday, Nov. 17
winner of Match 5 vs. winner Match 6   4 p.m.
winner of Match 7 vs. winner Match 8   6 p.m.


CHAMPIONSHIP
Sunday, Nov. 18
winner of Match 9 vs. winner Match 10  6 p.m.

TV COVERAGE
Sunday's championship match will be nationally televised live by CSTV at 6 p.m. ET.

RADIO COVERAGE
For the first time in C-USA history, all 11 matches will be broadcasted. WMUL will provide complete radio coverage at 88.1 FM in Huntington, W.Va., and on-line at http://www.marshall.edu/wmul/live.asx.