McNeese Volleyball enters this week's SLC tournament as the 4th seed

From Staff Reports
The Contraband

Preseason polls are just that and the McNeese volleyball team can attest to that this season. The Cowgirls were picked to finish 9th by the Southland coaches and 11th by the sports information directors. The Cowgirls proved both groups wrong and finished in fourth place with a 9-7 record. The Cowgirls haven’t finished the regular season that high since 2007 when McNeese also finished fourth.

McNeese will make its 29th Southland Conference Tournament appearance this week as the fourth seed and will face fifth seed New Orleans at 1:30 p.m. Friday in Conway, Arkansas.

Ironically, second year head coach Ashleigh Fitzgerald was an assistant coach for McNeese on the 2007 team.

The first two rounds of the tournament will be streamed live on the Southland Conference Digital Network, including Southland.org/watch and the league’s mobile and tablet apps. The championship round will be an exclusive presentation of ESPN3, available via WatchESPN.com and the WatchESPN app.

New Orleans will be an opponent the Cowgirls have faced twice in the last month. The Privateers defeated the Cowgirls 3-1 in New Orleans on Oct. 30 then McNeese picked up a 3-1 home win on Nov. 10 The Cowgirls will enter the tournament having won their last three matches won four of its their last five, and nine of their last 13.

A win over New Orleans would advance the Cowgirls to a Noon match on Saturday against the winner of the undefeated regular season league champs Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and 8th seed Southeastern La.

The other half of the bracket has no. 2 seed Central Arkansas taking on no. 7 seed Sam Houston State and no. 3 seed Stephen F. Austin facing no. 6 seed Houston Baptist.