There isn’t much to be said about the Summit League Championship game the Roos played last Tuesday against Omaha. Kansas City was up two sets to none and leading 20-17 in set three.
From there, it all collapsed. KC lost set three by a score of 26-24. Set four was a disastrous 25-12 defeat. In the final set and tiebreaker, the Roos lost 15-12.
Though the loss was devastating, simply making the championship game was enough for the team to automatically qualify for the National Invitational Volleyball Championship (NIVC) tournament.
The NIVC tournament is a 32-team competition secondary to the NCAA event. Whereas champions of each conference automatically qualify for the NCAA tournament, the NIVC chooses runners-up for instant invitation.
This year, 10 teams automatically qualified and 22 received at-large bids. It should be noted that the South Dakota Coyotes received an at-large bid to the NIVC.
On Nov. 30, the Roos will take on the Tulsa Golden Hurricane. Tulsa finished the season with a 17-14 record, 10-6 in conference. The American Athletic Conference, where the Golden Hurricane call home, sent five teams to the NIVC and one to the NCAA tournament.
The only mutual opponent between Tulsa and Kansas City was Oral Roberts. Tulsa beat ORU in a sweep, and the Roos only dropped one of seven sets played against them. The key to the match will be whether or not Kansas City can keep control of Tulsa’s star player, graduate outside hitter Kayley Cassaday. She totaled 592 kills on 1,656 total attacks. Cassaday is the Odyssey Warren of Tulsa.
Should Kansas City advance, their next opponent would be the winner of the match between Wichita State and Arkansas State.
The game will be aired on ESPN+ and hosted in Wichita, Kansas. Tickets are available for purchase here.
