The Mount Vernon Nazarene College women's volleyball team will host the 1999 NAIA Region IX Tournament on Friday and Saturday with a berth in the NAIA National Tournament on the line for the winner.
The Lady Cougars (41-4) are seeded second out of the six teams in the event, which begins with pool play on Friday. MVNC will square off against fifth-seeded Malone College (28-9) at 2:00 p.m. on Friday before wrapping up pool play with a 7:00 p.m. match against the University of Michigan-Dearborn (27-21), the fourth seed. Malone and Michigan-Dearborn will meet at 4:30 p.m. in the other pool play match.
In the other pool, top-seeded University of Findlay (31-8) will face sixth-seeded Houghton (NY) College (22-9) at 2:00 p.m. Houghton will then play third-seeded Walsh University (31-11) at 4:30 p.m. followed by the match between Findlay and Walsh.
The top two teams in each pool will advance to the semifinals of the single elimination portion of the tournament that will be at noon on Saturday. The championship match will follow at 4:00 p.m. The winner of the tournament will receive an automatic berth in the 1999 NAIA National Tournament to be held in Fresno, California, on December 1-4.
"It is a great honor to host this tournament with six outstanding teams competing," said head coach Paul Swanson. "There is a lot at stake for the winner, and it should prove to be an exciting weekend of volleyball. Any team is capable of winning the tournament, and the team that does will have played some great volleyball. We are excited to be a part of such a high-quality event."
