ROLLA, Mo. – For the third time in program history, Missouri S&T's women's volleyball team is heading to the NCAA Division II Tournament as the Miners were selected tonight as one of the eight teams that will take part in the Midwest Regional that will run from Nov. 30-Dec. 2 at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

The Miners played their way to the eighth seed in the regional as they won eight of their final 10 games of the season to finish the regular season at 18-10.  Both of S&T's losses in that 10-game stretch came to the top seed in the regional – UMSL, who beat the Miners on both ends of their season-high seven-game winning streak that was snapped Saturday in the semifinals of the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament.

S&T will face UMSL (30-1) again to open the regional on Nov. 30 with a start time to be announced.

The other first round matchups will pit fourth-seeded Quincy against fifth-seeded Grand Valley State – the winner will face the S&T-UMSL winner Friday – along with second-seeded Ferris State and seven-seed Hillsdale as well as third-seeded Lewis and sixth-seeded Rockhurst.  A total of five teams from the GLVC will take part in the regional.

The Miners had two players named to the All-GLVC team last week in middle hitter Shelby Ply (Rolla, MO/Rolla) and outside hitter Madelyn Mason (Mount Horeb, WI/Mount Horeb), who are among the team leaders in kills and blocks on the season.  Ply leads S&T with 104 blocks on the year, tied for the 10^th-most in a season in team history and also has 268 kills that ranks third behind Mason and Jordan Burton (Olathe, KS/Olathe South).

Mason has a team-leading 352 kills, which ranks ninth for one season in school history and is second to Ply in blocks with 89.  Burton has recorded 339 kills, which is just off the top 10 for a single season, while Alina Carrillo (Oviedo, FL/Hagerty) has 45 service aces that has her ranked among the GLVC leaders in that department to go along with 230 kills and 321 digs.

Mia Alessio (Channahon, IL/Minooka), who was named to the GLVC's all-tournament team over the weekend, leads the Miners with 440 digs, while Meiko Pearson (Overland Park, KS/Blue Valley Northwest) has made 286 digs and Abigail Widiker (Hammond, WI/Saint Croix Central) has 242.  Annie Arand (Washington, MO/St. Francis Borgia) leads S&T with 638 assists and Elise Mehaffy (Marion, IA/Marion) has 554 assists as the two have shared the setter duties throughout the season.

Missouri S&T's previous appearances in the NCAA Tournament came in 2011, when the Miners dropped their opening round match to Hillsdale in four sets and in 2014 when they lost a three-set decision to Grand Valley State.