Women's Volleyball | 9/12/2019 4:39:00 PM

DENVER, Colo. – Despite what happens this upcoming weekend, the Buccaneers have aspirations of making another trip to this very city in December when the NCAA DII National Championship will be held at the Auraria Events Center. 

Many questions regarding the upper echelon of Division II volleyball will be answered this weekend at the Colorado Premier Challenge with 10-of-the-12 teams in the tournament opening the season in the national Top-25 and eight teams appearing in the top-15. In addition, the 12 teams in the field combined to go 40-8 over the opening weekend of the season.

• The Lewis Flyers are coming off a 29-8 season that included a Midwest Regional Championship, their 13^th consecutive NCAA tournament bid and a trip to the National Championship.
• Lewis' streak of 13 consecutive NCAA trips is the longest of all women's volleyball teams in the Midwest Region.
• Last week, Lewis went 4-0 at the Shark Invitational on the campus of Nova Southeastern with wins over Millersville, Shaw and Puerto Rico-Mayaguez in straight sets. The Flyers also took down SSC rival Palm Beach Atlantic in five sets.
• Barry is 3-0 against the Flyers all-time with the last match coming in 2012 with the Bucs pulling out the win in five sets. 

THE JENNIES ARE BACK

• Central Missouri made their first trip back to the NCAA Tournament last year since 2015 despite falling to Nebraska-Kearney for the third-straight season in the conference semifinals. The Jennies lost in straight sets to Minnesota-Duluth in the first round of the tournament.
• The Jennies were co-champions in the very first Colorado Premier Challenge back in 1996. 
• Central Missouri opened their season down in the Sunshine State. They played four games in Florida going 3-1. They defeated Valdosta State (3-0), Hillsdale (3-2) and Florida Southern (3-0) but lost to No. 1-ranked Tampa (3-2).
• Barry is 2-2 all-time against UCM with the last match coming in 2000 when the Bucs came away with a 3-1 victory.