SEMO VOLLEYBALL AGAIN HEADED TO CALIFORNIA FOR NCAA TOURNEY

The waiting game ended for Southeast Missouri State University's volleyball squad Sunday night when the NCAA released its bracket for the 64-team Division I Tournament.

Southeast will be headed to California for the second straight year as the Otahkians take on Loyola Marymount Thursday night at the University of California-Santa Barbara.

The Otahkians are part of the 16-team Pacific Region, with Santa Barbara one of four sites for first-round and second-round matches.

Also in the field in Santa Barbara are the host squad and Oral Roberts, who square off in Thursday night's other first-round match. Thursday's winners meet Friday night, with that winner advancing to the regional semifinals at Stanford."It's nice to finally know who and where we'll be playing," said Southeast coach Cindy Gannon as she and her players gathered to watch the NCAA pairings show via satellite in the studios of KFVS-TV. "The waiting is tough, especially as far as preparation."The contest pitting Southeast, which is 28-5 and has won 21 straight matches, against 19-10 Loyola Marymount will be a rematch. The squads met way back on Sept. 3 in the Colorado State Tournament, with Loyola Marymount winning in three games."The beauty of it is we've played them already so we've got film on them and we don't have to scramble around looking for a scouting report," said Gannon with a laugh. "They're a good team, but that was our second match of the season and we're a totally different team now."This team has talked all year about playing them (Loyola Marymount) again and now we've got the opportunity. If we play well, then I think it's a very winnable match."Last year, Southeast had to face powerhouse Stanford in a first-round match and put up a strong challenge before losing in four games.

Because the Otahkians are regarded much more highly this season thanks in large part to a win over nationally-ranked Arkansas they were able to avoid a first-round match against one of the top seeds.

Southeast had been hopeful of hosting the first and second rounds of a regional but that didn't materialize."That's something we still have to shoot for," Gannon said. "As the reputation of our program continues to grow, that could be a possibility for the future."The four No. 1 seeds for the various regionals are Stanford, Hawaii, Pacific and Penn State. The national semifinals and finals will be played Dec.

16-18 in Honolulu.