Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
The Wright State Raiders and Dayton Flyers volleyball teams had similar reactions when they found out their NCAA tournament fates Sunday night.
Players screamed when they saw their school’s name on ESPNU. They jumped up and down.
There were plenty of hugs, too, in the Wright State locker room, a video posted to Twitter showed, because the team had never advanced to the NCAA tournament and didn’t know for sure if was going to be selected this season. Wright State earned an at-large NCAA tournament berth, which no program in school history had ever done.
“After the Horizon League tournament and losing to NKU, obviously that stung us,” Wright State coach Allie Matters said. “I wasn’t prepared to go into the locker room that night and deliver a speech to wrap up our season. I thought, ‘I don’t think they’re going to listen to a word I’m saying.’ They were devastated, to say the least. So to have another chance to spend more time with this wonderful group and hit the court one more time, it’s absolutely overwhelming.”
The Dayton and Wright State names popped up on the selection show moments apart because the teams occupy the same section of the bracket.
Dayton (22-8) will play No. 12 Marquette (27-5) in the first round at 4:30 p.m. Friday, and Wright State (24-5) will play No. 16 Purdue (22-7) at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
