Texas denied bid to 2003 NCAA Tournament
Complete bracket
AUSTIN, Texas - The University of Texas volleyball team lived by the mantra "Win and we might be in" last week as it prepared for its regular-season finale against No. 5 Kansas State on Saturday, Nov. 30. The team needed a victory over the Wildcats to move one game over .500 on the season - one which saw the team suffer through numerous injuries and off-court family emergencies - a record which would qualify them for selection to the NCAA Tournament, though just barely.
Knowing they needed a win to possibly extend their season, the Longhorns went out and defeated K-State, 3-1, at UT's Gregory Gym, and then awaited anxiously for the announcement of the 2003 NCAA Tournament brackets on Sunday night. The team believed, based on its strength of schedule and significant wins during the season, it would have a chance at grabbing one of the approximately 30 at-large bids to the tournament.
When the final eight-team bracket was released on ESPNews on Sunday night, the Longhorns were still left searching for their name. Texas, at 15-14 on the season and 10-10 in the Big 12, was not offered a bid to the NCAA Tournament. Six other teams from the Big 12 - including Kansas State, Nebraska, Texas A&M, Colorado, Kansas and Missouri - were extended invitations to the national tournament, leaving Texas at home.
"We are very disappointed that we were not selected," Texas head coach Jerritt Elliott said after the bracket's announcement. "We thought that our significant wins and the strength of both the Big 12 and our non-conference schedule would boost us over some of the other teams in contention for the last few spots in the tournament. The selection committee stressed those two factors last season at the Final Four, and we thought our win over Kansas State on yesterday was the last thing we needed to get in.
"When you leave the decision to the selection committee instead of winning and taking it care of it yourself, this can happen. We'll take this feeling we have now and carry it with us as we prepare for next season, both in spring training and in the preseason," Elliott continued.
This year marks only the second time in program history that Texas has not participated in the NCAA Tournament; the Longhorns also did not participate in 2000, the season before Elliott arrived in Austin. UT has played in 20 NCAA Tournaments, the third-highest total nationally entering the 2003 tournament.
With the team's victory over Kansas State on Saturday night, the Longhorns' two seniors - Whitney Garvens (New Braunfels, Texas/New Braunfels) and Kathryn Wilson (Macomb Township, Mich./Dakota) - capped their careers at Texas with one of their biggest wins. The win over the fifth-ranked Wildcats marked the first time since the 1999 season that Texas had defeated a top-five team. They closed their careers with a record of 65-55 (.542) and two trip to the NCAA Tournament (2001, 2002).
Defending national champion USC, coached by former UT head coach Mick Haley, is the tournament's number one seed and is 29-0 on the season. The Women of Troy are followed by Hawaii, Florida, Pepperdine, Stanford, Kansas State, Georgia Tech, UCLA, Nebraska and California. Penn State, Washington, Minnesota, Colorado State, Illinois and Texas A&M round out the top 16 seeds in the 2003 tournament.
In all, Texas played four of the top 16 seeds, and played 17 of its 29 matches against teams who were selected for the NCAA Tournament.
Overall this season, Bethany Howden (Austin, Texas/Westlake) led the Longhorns in kills with 500, while 2002 All-American Mira Topic (Kastela Kambelovac, Croatia/Vladimir Nazor) added 466. Both were First Team All-Big 12 honorees.
