Nov. 5, 2006

ROMEOVILLE, Ill. - The Lewis University women's volleyball team will face defending national champion Grand Valley State Thursday at 2:30 p.m. EST in the first round of the NCAA Division II Great Lakes Regional Championship at Hillsdale (Mich.) College.

The Flyers (25-5), who earned an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament by winning the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) championship, are the No. 7 seed in the Great Lakes Regional. This will be Lewis' seventh NCAA appearance overall and first since 2002.

Grand Valley State (26-3), the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) runner-up and No. 5-ranked team in Division II, is the No. 2 seed. The Lakers lost to Ashland in the GLIAC tournament title match.

In other first-round matches, No. 3 seed Southern Illinois Edwardsville (27-5), the GLVC runner-up, takes on No. 6 Michigan Tech (15-14) of the GLIAC; No. 4 Ferris State (21-8) of the GLIAC meets No. 5 Ashland (20-9); and Hillsdale (28-1) of the GLIAC, the top seed and host, faces No. 8 West Virginia State (25-8) of the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

A Lewis victory over Grand Valley State would put the Flyers into Friday's 5 p.m. semifinal against the SIU Edwardsville-Michigan Tech winner. The regional championship match is scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday, with the winner advancing to the national quarterfinals in Pensacola, Fla., Nov. 16.

In the GLVC Championship tournament, Lewis defeated two nationally ranked teams - No. 19 Rockhurst in the semifinals and No. 13 SIU Edwardsville in the title match - to capture its fifth GLVC crown overall and first since 1992.