More people will be able to watch the 2004 State Farm-Missouri Valley Conference Volleyball Tournament title match than any previous Missouri Valley volleyball championship match.
First serve for the championship match will be at 7:06 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 27 at Charles Koch Arena in Wichita, Kan. The championship will culminate the six-team, two-day tournament with an automatic bid to the 2004 NCAA Tournament for the winner.
With veteran Valley volleyball championship voice Greg Halbleib on the play-by-play and legendary former SMS coach Linda Dollar providing analysis, the championship match will be telecast live on FSN Midwest, Comcast SportsNet Chicago, Fox College Sports and Metro Sports. Mediacom of Iowa will show the match on tape delay at 1 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 28.
Jack R. Watkins, associate commissioner for marketing/television, cites the growing interest in college volleyball and the increasing depth of quality teams in the Valley as points that make for good television.
The Valleys level of success on the national scene and in the NCAA Tournament made our pitch a compelling one, said Watkins. As a result, we have an opportunity to showcase our very best teams at a time when the NCAA Division I Womens Volleyball Committee will be watching. And, with the potential of the league having five teams with 20 or more victories in 2004, our clearances further validate what a tremendous volleyball conference we have.
Tournament host Wichita State already has clinched the No. 1 seed in the tournament and Northern Iowa has the other first-round bye with the No. 2 seed. Illinois State, SMS and Creighton all have clinched positions in the tournament heading into the final week of regular-season conference play, while the sixth and final seed is still up for grabs among Evansville, Southern Illinois and Indiana State.
Illinois State continues to be the only team in the 23-year history of the conference tournament to play in all of them. The Redbirds have won the title nine times. UNI has won 11, including the last six in a row, and SMS has won the other two.
Redbird coach Sharon Dingman sees the television as a plus for the Valley and all of college volleyball.
In the process of trying to grow our sport, its great to see the Valley championship match available on TV to so many viewers, said Dingman, a long-time committee leader for the American Volleyball Coaches Association. This year, the Valley has been very competitive, and a whole lot of people will be able to see the results of that competition on TV with our championship game.
