The Cowgirls were recently announced to have been picked to earn an at-large berth into the National Invitation Volleyball Championship (NIVC) postseason tournament for a chance to earn some hardware for what has been a relatively successful season for the Cowgirls. The Cowgirls went 20-9 for the season, with an incredible flawless start to the season where they wouldn’t drop a single non-conference match-up. Conference play was a little bit of a different story, however, as the Cowgirls went an even 9-9 in Mountain West play to place 7th in the conference. This placing meant that they would just miss competing in the Mountain West championships, as only the top 6 placing teams from the conference can compete in the championship. This would have presumably ended their season until they were picked to compete in the NIVC. This is the first time the Cowgirl will play in a postseason tournament since 2019.
The NIVC starts play with eight 4-team pods, in which all games will be hosted by one of the teams in the pod. Only one team can advance from each pod, as each game is single elimination. The eight remaining teams will then compete in a quarterfinal single elimination bracket to decide the champion. The Cowgirls’ pod consists of South Dakota, Northern Colorado and Valparaiso, with the host team being Northern Colorado.
The Cowgirls will open up their tournament run at 3 p.m. on Thursday against the South Dakota Coyotes, who went 18-10 on the season and had a 12-4 mark in the Summit League. If the Cowgirls win, they will play the winner of Valparaiso and Northern Colorado to decide who goes to the quarterfinals.
