2022 NCAA Volleyball Tournament Bracket (PDF)
INDIANAPOLIS – James Madison, the 2022 Sun Belt Conference Regular-Season and Tournament Champion, earned the Sun Belt’s automatic berth to the NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championship and will open play on Friday.
The Dukes will face BYU on Friday at 3 p.m. CT at the Petersen Events Center in Pittsburgh, Pa. It will mark the first-ever meeting between the Cougars and the Dukes. The winner of that match will face the victor of the 6 p.m. CT first-round contest between Pitt, the host institution, and Colgate.
James Madison is 24-4 overall and was 15-1 in Sun Belt Conference play. The Dukes, who are currently on a 15-match winning streak, have an NCAA RPI of 22. JMU has notched five wins this season against NCAA top-100 foes. The Dukes rank among the NCAA’s top-20 teams in blocks per set, hitting percentage and service aces.
James Madison is led by Sun Belt Conference Defensive Player of the Year and First-Team All-Sun Belt selection Sophie Davis, a senior middle blocker. She is joined by First-Team All-Sun Belt outside hitter Miëtte Veldman and Second-Team All-Sun Belt setter Caroline Dozier. Lauren Steinbrecher was the 2022 Sun Belt Coach of the Year.
James Madison is making its sixth all-time NCAA Tournament appearance and first since 2017. The Dukes are seeking their first NCAA Tournament victory.
BYU was ranked No. 18 in the latest AVCA poll. The Cougars are 21-6 on the year and posted a 15-3 mark in the West Coast Conference. BYU boasts the fifth-best hitting percentage in the nation at .297.
Sun Belt Conference member Texas State’s resume included a 24-7 overall record, a 14-2 tally in Sun Belt Conference play and a No. 44 RPI, in addition to three wins against Autonomy 5 opponents this season and four victories against NCAA top-100 RPI foes. The NCAA Division I Volleyball Committee on Sunday listed the Bobcats as one of its First Teams Out.
First- and second-round matches will be played December 1-3 at 16 campus sites. Teams winning both matches will continue to regional play December 8 & 10. Regionals for the NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Championship will be held at four non-predetermined campus sites, which will be announced on December 4. At each site, four teams will compete in single-elimination regional semifinal competition.
New for this year, the top-32 teams are seeded nationally in pods of four and placed within four regions. Per the established bracketing principles, the top seeds are provided the opportunity to host. Additionally, team pairings are determined within the pods (ones paired with eights, twos paired with sevens, threes paired with sixes and fours paired with fives) and assigned geographically within their pods, with the exception that teams from the same conference are not paired during the first and second rounds.