Selection night experience ‘totally new’ for Mids
Navy to face Michigan in first round in program’s first trip to Division I tourney
Senior Sydney Shearn frolicked around her Navy women’s volleyball teammates, clustered around red-cloth tables on the upper level at the Federal House in downtown Annapolis. Gathering together Sunday night for an NCAA bracket unveiling is a tradition scores of programs across America have done time and time again. But not the Mids.
“It’s totally new for us,” senior setter Patricia Mattingly said.
Shearn asked each of her teammates what they loved about their time with Navy volleyball. They were close friends who, had the Mids not toppled the defending champion American in the Patriot League final, would have had no more volleyball to play — some for a season, some forever.
A glittering Christmas tree occupied one corner; a stuffed pair of Bill the Goats sat in the other. With blue-and-gold pompoms on and off their heads and Navy logos stuck to their cheeks, the Mids laughed, cheering on the Memphis and Charleston men’s basketball teams, whose long second quarter on ESPNU was pushing their moment they’d been waiting for their whole careers back and back.
Then, the graphics changed. Stanford, Alabama State, Loyola Marymount, Duke — school after school scrolled by on the television screen as the anticipation swelled and swelled.
“We didn’t really know what to expect going in,” senior defensive specialist Darby Minton said. “It was nerve-wracking, just sitting and waiting and staring at the TV and waiting for our name to come up.”
Seconds after Michigan’s name popped up on the screen, though, the Mids burst into celebration.
“We’re going to Pittsburgh!” some players shouted.
Navy (23-8), which clinched the Patriot League final last Sunday to punch its ticket to the NCAA tournament, will face the Wolverines (22-9) in the first round on Friday in Pittsburgh.
“Michigan’s a good team, so it’ll be really exciting to compete at a high level like that,” Minton said.
NCAA first round
APatriot League title crown had been the seniors’ dream since the very beginning. But now that it’s on their heads, they know they can’t let themselves relax.
“Winning that game was fulfilling for us. … carrying that same passion to this tournament is going to be huge for us,” Minton said.
This is Navy’s first trip to the NCAA stage since the program joined Division I in 1991. As a Division II team, the Mids contended in three NCAA tournaments in the late 1980s.
Michigan is somewhat an unknown for first-year coach Paco Labrador. He knows they’re physical, athletic, and big, much like Penn State, which swept the Mids early in the season.
“We’ll go back and see what we did in that situation and go from there,” the coach said.
The Mids will have less than a week to prepare for their Big Ten foe before making the trip up to the tournament.
“It’s awesome to be here still, especially for our seniors,” Mattingly said. “We’re not ready for it to be over. To have a couple more weeks with our teammates is amazing.”