Chaminade will host and play in the revival of one of the most competitive postseason tournaments in Division II women’s volleyball. The Pacific West Conference women’s volleyball tournament, in which two of the four teams are ranked in the top 10 of the AVCA national poll, will be held at McCabe Gym this week.
“The whole conference within the sport of volleyball this year is one of the strongest conferences in the nation, and the strongest we’ve been team to team,” said Brad Jones, the commissioner of the PacWest, in an interview on the Chaminade campus on Tuesday. “Very sincerely, I cannot wait to watch this competition. Anything can happen.”
It’s been 25 years since the last PacWest Volleyball Championships. It is the last sport in the conference that was missing a conference championship. The tournament will field four teams: No. 1 seeded Point Loma (23-3), No. 2 Fresno Pacific (23-1), No. 3 Chaminade (16-13), and No. 4 Hawaii Hilo (20-8). The semifinals will be held on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. (Point Loma vs. UH-Hilo) and 7:30 p.m. (Fresno Pacific vs. Chaminade), followed by the final on Saturday at 6 p.m.
Chaminade gets to host the championships due to its success last year and winning the conference regular season last year. The Silverswords have won the conference regular season three out of the last four years. They will look for the home court advantage to help them win the conference championship in 25 years.
“I think if folks have been once or twice this year, they’ll definitely be there for this and word will get out that it’s a special opportunity,” said Tom Buning, who is in his fifth year as the athletic director of Chaminade. “So drop whatever you’re doing and make sure you don’t let work or other things get in the way of being there to support the team.”
The winner of the tournament is guaranteed a spot in the Division II national tournament. However, with the PacWest being such a competitive conference, there could be more than one team chosen. Therefore, every team will be playing for a chance to prove itself to the selection committee.
The championships are important for the conference as a whole because it will gain more visibility and respect, according to Jones. Even though logistically, having a postseason tournament is harder for the PacWest than for mainland conferences due to all the traveling between Northern California, Southern California, and Hawaii. Jones believes the athletes deserve to compete in an exciting postseason, despite the distance between all the schools.
“There’s nothing better than having a conference tournament where you’re playing for all the marbles and that automatic qualification,” said Jones, who was appointed commissioner in July. “Teams can peak late in the season and come on and win that conference title, and go on in the NCAA tournament and make a big splash.”
Buning said that Chaminade will host a first-class tournament and will set the bar high for the future host. The conference is still deciding whether they want to make the tournament host decided by the previous season’s regular season champions or just a simple rotation between the different regions in the conference. Chaminade found out it was hosting the tournament in May and has been working on preparing for it since then.
“They’ll [the teams competing] know right away when they come in that it’ll be different,” Buning said. “The video broadcasting of the game will be up a notch, and we’ll put out some extra little hospitality things.”
This tournament has been years in the making and will complete the conference championship portfolio for the PacWest. With this milestone, Jones only sees the tournaments growing and improving the competition.
“We always want to enhance these [tournaments] so that they become better,” Jones said. “Whether it’s increasing the teams that can compete from four to six, and within our own conference championships, how do we make it more of a unique experience?”