Cardinal volleyball ninth seed to nationals

By JASON ELLIOTT

Sports writer

The North Idaho College women's volleyball team, which finished as runner-up in last week's Region 18 tournament, will be the ninth seed NJCAA tournament starting next Thursday, opening against No. 8 seed Arizona Western at noon PST at the Casper (Wyo.) Events Center.

NIC (16-11) has advanced to nationals in five of the last six seasons, finishing eighth in 2012 and ninth in 2011.

"The only team we lost to outside of the top seven was Snow College," first-year NIC coach Miles Kydd said. "I've felt like we were a little higher than our rank and seed all season. I told the girls it doesn't really matter what our ranking is, we just had to win our semifinal at regional to go."

NIC beat Southern Idaho in the semifinals of last week's Region 18 tournament in Salt Lake City, eliminating the defending national champions.

"The fact that CSI was the defending champion and ranked eighth in the country probably helped us," Kydd said. "To beat them twice, it showed it wasn't a fluke. To beat them twice in a week showed that we're a good team. If we hadn't beaten them on (Nov. 1 in Coeur d'Alene), they'd just say we got lucky that day."

Salt Lake (22-6), the No. 6 seed, won the Region 18 tournament and will face No. 11 Hill College (28-7) in its national opener.

In earlier matchups this season, NIC lost to No. 1 seed Blinn College (35-3) in five games in Twin Falls, No. 3 Western Nebraska (37-3) in five games in Salt Lake City, No. 4 Iowa Western (42-3) in three games at Sterling, Colo.

They've beaten No. 14 Hutchinson (Kan.) (27-10) in five games in Twin Falls in early September.

All matches will be shown live on NJCAA TV.