It came down to the wire, and two nights after closing the regular season with a loss to Purdue on Senior Night, the Washington Huskies women’s volleyball team was one of the last four in, announced as part of the field of 64 for the 2024 NCAA Tournament. The Huskies will face off No. 7 seed Loyola Marymount in a match held at Stanford on December 6 at 4:30 p.m. PST.
The Huskies, who are led by head coach Leslie Gabriel, are the healthiest they’ve been all season after fighting through injuries to key players. They finished the regular season at 19-11, going 9-11 in their first year in the Big Ten conference, which had nine teams make the tournament.
“It’s just nice to have everyone back from injury,” Gabriel said in a statement. “I have a full squad now, so just giving them a couple more days of practice next to each other will be helpful, and we will just go out there and compete as hard as we can.”
In her second season, Gabriel led the Huskies back to the tournament after they missed it in 2023 for the first time in 22 years. This appearance will be No. 28 for Washington in school history and No. 22 for Gabriel, who was an assistant coach for 21 trips.
“I’m super excited for the players. This was a goal that we set for ourselves in January. We wanted to get our program back into the tournament, so I’m super excited to get back in, and we’ll get back to work tomorrow to make the most of this opportunity.”
If the Huskies are able to advance, they’ll face off with the winner of No. 2 seed Stanford vs. Sacramento State.
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