UA volleyball

The NCAA women’s volleyball selection show is slated for Sunday, and the Arkansas Razorbacks are on the bubble.

FAYETTEVILLE — Jason Watson and his University of Arkansas volleyball team are playing the waiting game.

It’s been 12 days since the Razorbacks swept South Carolina in their regular-season finale at Barnhill Arena, but they will need to bide their time to find out if their season will continue.

The NCAA women’s volleyball selection show is slated for 3 p.m. Sunday on ESPNU. That’s when the field of 48 teams will be announced, and Watson’s team is on the bubble.

“It’s on our minds all the time,” sophomore outside hitter Jill Gillen said. “I know we’re a good team and we definitely deserve the tournament, and that’s why this is hard because we don’t know what’s going to happen.”

There would be little need for consternation if the field was at the normal number of 64.

“A conference that normally sends five or six teams, and we finished fourth, you’re feeling a lot better than we are right now,” said Watson, who is in his fifth season at Arkansas. “I think we’d be really confident.”

The NCAA decided in October to move the tournament to spring because of the coronavirus pandemic and slice the field to 48, meaning a lot of deserving teams will be left out, Watson said. One of those could be Arkansas, which hasn’t been to the tournament since 2013.

The Razorbacks are 14-8 while playing an SEC-only schedule in both the fall and spring. It’s the first time Arkansas has been over .500 in league play since 2012.

The entire volleyball tournament will be held in Omaha, Neb., from April 13-24. There will be only 30 automatic bids because the Ivy League and Big West did not compete this season. That leaves 18 at-large bids, but that’s still considerably less than the normal 32.

Kelly Sheffield, the coach of top-ranked Wisconsin, and Nebraska Coach John Cook, who has won four national titles, went public with their pleas last week to return the tournament to 64 teams.

Florida State Coach Chris Poole, who started the Arkansas volleyball program in 1994 and was the coach the last time the Razorbacks won an NCAA Tournament match in 2005, agreed since the tournament is at one site.

“I think the initial response from coaches was that we were thankful the NCAA was moving the tournament to the spring,” said Poole, whose team also sits on the bubble. “I don’t think at that point any of us thought about how it might look as we didn’t know what shape the country might be in.

“I think it’s great every conference has the opportunity to be awarded a bid. But by cutting the tournament, there will be teams in the top 25 not make the tournament at all. With having very little to no nonconference play, it makes sense to increase the field and minimize leaving out a team that deserves to make the tournament.”

Gillen, who ranks sixth in the SEC in kills per set and second in aces, said she’s considered writing an email to the NCAA to provide a player’s perspective.

“This is the hardest year to do this and we’ve done it,” Gillen said. “We’ve put in the work, and we deserve this. It’s the only sport that’s been downsized like this, and it’s really difficult knowing that.”

Watson said his team will continue working in hopes of hearing its name Sunday.

“We’re prepping to go and still think we have a shot, which I think — and I’m highly biased — is pretty danged impressive,” Watson said. “I don’t know what we were picked, but I know it wasn’t fourth.”