Arizona Wildcats volleyball selected to NCAA Tournament, plays Cleveland State Friday

The volleyball team is heading to East Lansing

For the fourth consecutive year, and for the 19th time under head coach Dave Rubio, the Arizona Wildcats volleyball team has made the NCAA Tournament.

Arizona (18-14, 10-10 Pac-12) earned an at-large bid on Sunday evening. They open tournament play on Friday against Cleveland State in East Lansing, Michigan.

“It’s always exciting to be back in the tournament,” Coach Rubio said in a video on the team’s Twitter page. “You work so hard throughout the year to put yourself in a position to be invited. Really proud of the kids and how they played throughout the year and handled the difficult situations that came up as we went through the season.”

Here’s a look at Arizona’s portion of the draw:

Here is the top left quarter of the bracket! #NCAAVB http://pic.twitter.com/KBhgvLFDIw

— NCAA Volleyball (@NCAAVolleyball) November 28, 2016

Cleveland State went 25-5 this year, 14-2 in Horizon League games. Arizona has had issues playing down to its competition this year (most recently losing in five sets to an ASU team that finished conference play 5-15). But that doesn’t look like it should be an issue against Cleveland State.

This is also the first time Rubio has been to the state of Michigan.

“I’ve certainly never been to Michigan,” he explained. “Looking forward to making the trip over there to East Lansing. I know Michigan State and Cleveland State are both great opponents. We’ll play Cleveland State, and give it our best shot.”

Arizona and Cleveland State are scheduled to start at 3 PM MT on Friday. The winner will play the winner of Michigan State and Fairfield on Saturday.

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