RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – The Arkansas Tech Golden Suns volleyball team will compete in its second consecutive NCAA tournament, and its third in four years, the NCAA announced Sunday evening. By virtue of its automatic bid as the Great American Conference champion, the Golden Suns (29-5) have been selected as the eighth seed in the Central Region and will once again travel to Duluth, Minnesota to face off against top seed and nationally second-ranked Minnesota Duluth (31-1) on Thursday, Nov. 20.
The Golden Suns will make their fourth tournament appearance in school history, having made the tournament field in 2000, 2011, and 2013, and the third under the guidance of head coach Kristy Bayer.

Arkansas Tech will put its 21-match winning streak on the line against the Bulldogs' 25-match win streak. UMD's lone loss of the season came at the hands of then-No. 2 (and current No. 1) Tampa on Sept. 13.

The Bulldogs had a tough matchup in the opening round of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC)'s championship tournament, topping Sioux Falls 3-2 before cruising to the NSIC title with a 3-1 win over No. 5 Southwest Minnesota State in the semifinals and a 3-0 sweep of No. 7 Wayne State in the championship match, claiming the NSIC's automatic bid.

Both SMSU (21-9) and Wayne State (26-6) will also be in the regional championship field, entering play as the No. 3 and No. 5 seeds, respectively. Concordia-St. Paul (26-5) is the fourth representative from the NSIC, seeded second in the event and ranked No. 3 nationally.

The Mid-America Athletic Association (MIAA) will send three teams to the championship, led by regular-season champion and automatic qualifier Central Missouri (22-8), ranked No. 17 nationally and seeded fourth in the championship field. Nationally sixth-ranked Nebraska Kearney will take the sixth seed in the event and Washburn, ranked 13^th nationally, will be the No. 7 seed.

Despite the Golden Suns riding a long win streak into the tournament, the path through the Great American Conference championship was a difficult one. After looking sharp in a quarterfinal sweep of Southwestern Oklahoma, the Golden Suns squared off against archrival Harding in the semifinals in a rematch of the GAC's last three championship matches.

The Golden Suns and Lady Bisons split the first two sets of the semifinal match before Tech won the third and fourth sets, setting up a championship matchup against a Southern Nazarene squad that was the last team to pick up a win over Arkansas Tech, back on Sept. 26.

Tech won the opening set 25-18, but the Crimson Storm seized momentum with wins in sets two and three. SNU was two points away from taking the crown in a 23-23 fourth set, but the Golden Suns scored the set's two final points to force a fifth set.

It appeared that the magic had all but run out for the Golden Suns in the fifth set, when Southern Nazarene stormed out to an 11-4 lead. However, the Golden Suns scored seven consecutive points to knot the set, and 11 of the final 13 points to cement the improbable comeback, giving Tech its second straight tournament crown and berth into the NCAA championship.

Match times for the tournament, which will be played Thursday, Nov. 20 through Saturday, Nov. 22 in the Romano Gymnasium on the UMD campus, are expected to be announced Monday.