The schedule has been decided, the bid has been drawn, and the stage has been set for the Alabama volleyball team. Sunday night, the team received a bid to the NCAA Tournament.
It isn’t the first time Alabama has gone to the NCAA Tournament. This is the team’s fourth trip, though the Crimson Tide has come back empty-handed from each of its previous trips.
“I’d like to think that we’ve used 33 matches through the course of a year to help us get prepared for this point, and now we’re at a place where it’s one and done,” Alabama coach Ed Allen said. “You either play, or you go home for the year.”
This year, the team goes into the tournament with a 24-9 record, including 11-7 in the Southeastern Conference. The 24 wins tied the most wins in a season since the program was re-established in 1989.
“I think we’re physically more gifted than what we were in years past, and that has everything to do with where we’re at right now,” Allen said. “And then I think having a degree of expectation and expecting athletes to fulfill what that expectation is is the other part of it, but I think we’re just athletically and emotionally a much more stable team than either of those first two teams that I’ve had here.”
Middle blocker Krystal Rivers was named to the All-SEC team and the SEC All-Freshman team Monday. The redshirt freshman leads the team with 421 kills and a .406 hitting percentage.
“This season has just been amazing,” Rivers said. “Coach told me at the beginning that I had a lot of potential, and just being able to work hard and realize that potential and especially doing it with this team like this team is the core team here at Alabama, and it’s going to achieve great things here, and being able to achieve what I achieved while being a part of this team has been amazing.”
Alabama will take on Oklahoma (23-7) Thursday in the first round of the Lexington Regional. The Crimson Tide is 3-1 all-time against the Sooners.
It isn’t just a regular opponent, though. Oklahoma was Allen’s last opponent before he came to coach at Alabama. It’s also where senior right side hitter Andrea McQuaid started her college career.
“It’ll be fun,” McQuaid said. “It’ll be kind of an emotional game, but at the end of the day, it’s also the end of my career too, so it’s just a bunch of exciting things, as for the team as well, so it’s going to be a great time.”
Despite the team’s inexperience in the postseason, senior defensive specialist Kelsey Melito said she isn’t worried, and that the team will approach it like any other game.
“We respect everyone, but we fear no one,” Melito said. “Whether it’s postseason play, or whether it’s preseason, you go in, you play the game that you’ve been training for your entire life like most of us have, you get it done.”
