Tournament Central I Live Video I Live Stats I California (Pa.) Statistics I Pitt-Johnstown Statistics

CALIFORNIA (Dec. 1) – The California University of Pennsylvania volleyball team will face Pitt-Johnstown in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Wheeling, West Virginia, tomorrow, Friday, Dec. 2, at 5 p.m.

Tickets: Admission price for adults is $10 and students/senior citizens are $5. All-tournament passes are also avaialble for $25. All tickets can be purchased at the gate. 

Live Coverage: The Wheeling Jesuit sports information office is scheduled to provide live stats and live video for the match at the links above. 

NCAA Tournament: Cal U is the No.5 seed in the Atlantic Region and UPJ is the No 4 seed. The Vulcans earned an at-large berth after advancing to the semifinals of the PSAC Tournament. UPJ received the No.4 seed and at-large berth after falling in the finals of the league tournament. The host and No. 1 seed Wheeling Jesuit will face No. 8 and CIAA Champion Shaw, No. 2 seed and PSAC Champion Gannon will face No. 7 Fairmont State and No. 3 Edinboro will play No. 6 Shippensburg.

National Rankings: The Atlantic Region features just one team in the AVCA Coaches Poll with defending-National Champion Wheeling Jesuit tied for fourth in the country.

Records: Cal U enters the NCAA Tournament with an overall record of 22-9 and behind a 13-5 league mark. UPJ enters the NCAA Tournament with a 24-9 overall record and a 15-3 record in the PSAC. The Lady Cats have won nine of their last 11 matches, including a 3-2 road victory over the Vulcans.

Scouting the Vulcans: Cal U ranks fourth in the PSAC in hitting percentage (.209) and kills per set (12.81). Senior Danielle Hayes leads the team and ranks second in the league with 438 kills. She also paces the team and the league with 3.98 kills per set. Sophomore Seairra Barrett ranks second on the team with 302 kills behind a team-high .322 hitting percentage, which ranks second in the conference. Senior Megan Litoborski leads the league with 1,168 assists this season and now ranks sixth in program history with 2,894 career assists. Barrett also leads the team with 75.0 total blocks and sophomore Bayleana Sowers leads the team with 3.88 digs per set.

Vulcans in the Playoffs: Cal U will be making their 14th appearance in the NCAA Tournament in the last 15 years. The Vulcans, who missed the NCAA Tournament last year for the first time since 2003, have advanced to at least the regional championship in each of their last nine appearances in the NCAA Tournament.

Scouting the Lady Cats: UPJ paces the PSAC with 249 service aces and is among the league leaders in hitting percentage and assists. Junior Kendall Mahony leads the team with 52 service aces, which ranks second in the conference. Freshman Anna Johns paces the Lady Cats with a .264 hitting percentage and redshirt junior Allison Mondorff has a team-high 1,109 assists, which ranks fourth in the league. Junior Devin Orr, who was selected PSAC Defensive Player of the Year, ranks among the league leaders and paces the team with 5.50 digs per set. Johns also has recorded a team-high 101 blocks this season which are the fourth-most in the league.

The Lady Cats in the Playoffs: UPJ is making its third appearance in the NCAA Tournament since joining the PSAC in 2013.  The Lady Cats hold an 0-2 all-time record in the NCAA Tournament.

Series: Since joining the PSAC in 2013, the Lady Cats lead the series with the Vulcans by a 4-1 margin. Cal U and UPJ are meeting for the first time in the NCAA Tournament.

Last Meeting: (Box Score) Cal U suffered a 3-2 defeat at home against UPJ on Oct. 29. Hayes became the 11th player in program history to reach 1,000 career kills, as she finished with 20 kills behind a .314 hitting percentage and added 17 digs. Barrett posted 10 kills while hitting at a .408 clip and also controlled the net with eight blocks. Junior Ashley Leto tallied eight kills and 14 digs in the loss.

Head Coaches: Peter Letourneau is in his sixth season at Cal U after previously coaching at Frostburg State. He has guided the program to a pair of PSAC Championships (2011, 2014), while compiling a 160-57 record as head coach of the Vulcans. He was selected the PSAC West Coach of the Year in 2011.

Joanna Haupt is in her fourth season as head coach at UPJ. She led the program to a PSAC Tournament title and a berth in its first-ever NCAA Tournament in 2013, her first year with the the Lady Cats. Haupt has posted a 95-43 overall record as head coach at UPJ and has been named PSAC East Coach of the Year twice. A former standout at Cal U, Haupt holds career school records for kills (1,897), aces (180) and total games played (519). She was inducted into the Cal U Athletic Hall of Fame this past year.

Up Next: The winner will advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament and will face the winner of Wheeling Jesuit-Shaw on Saturday, Dec. 3, at the Alma Grace McDonough Center in Wheeling, West Virginia.