The UNC volleyball team hosts its final regular-season match Friday, and at stake for the Bears is a share of the Big Sky Conference title and a No. 1 seed in the conference tournament next week. The Bears welcome Northern Arizona University to Greeley for a match at 6 p. m. Friday at Bank of Colorado Arena. NAU (22-6, 12-3 Big Sky) is currently in first place in the conference standings. The Lumberjacks clinched a share of the regular-season title last weekend. Northern Arizona accomplished this with a win Saturday over Idaho State in a match that included the longest set played at any level in NCAA volleyball this season, according to NAU. The Lumberjacks defeated Idaho State 44-42 in the second set of the 3-1. If NAU beats UNC on Friday, the Lumberjacks earn the top seed for the conference tournament next week. UNC hosts the Big Sky tournament Nov. 24-26 at Bank of Colorado Arena. UNC’s path to the No. 1 seed for the conference tournament isn’t as simple as winning its final three regular-season matches. The Bears (14-14, 11-4) are in second place in the conference standings going into Friday, having won two of their final three matches at home. UNC beat Idaho State last Thursday, and the Bears defeated Weber State on Saturday. Both NAU and UNC are on three-match winning streaks. UNC needs help from third-place Sacramento State (17-9, 10-4) to earn the No. 1 seed. The Hornets have two regular-season matches remaining this week, both on the road. Sacramento State plays at Eastern Washington on Wednesday evening and at Idaho on Friday evening. According to UNC, Sacramento State has to win both of these matches and the Bears have to win Friday for UNC to earn the No. 1 seed next week. If this happens, there would be a three-way tie for first place Northern Arizona, UNC and Sacramento State at 12-4 and then tiebreakers come into play. The tiebreakers are head-to-head matches among the three teams. In that case, UNC would have a 3-1 record against NAU and Sacramento State, Northern Arizona would be 2-2 against the others and Sacramento State would be 1-3. If UNC loses to Northern Arizona, and UNC and Sacramento State end up with 11 wins, UNC earns the No. 2 seed based on a tiebreaker over Sacramento State, according to NAU. UNC defeated Sacramento State in both matches during the regular season. UNC would end up with the third seed if it loses to Northern Arizona and Sacramento State beats Eastern Washington and Idaho. In this case, Sacramento State would have 12 Big Sky wins and UNC would have 11. Any needed tiebreaker between NAU and UNC would come down to Friday’s match. Northern Arizona has a win over UNC this season in a sweep. If UNC beats NAU in three sets Friday, the top seed would be determined by the total points in the two matches.
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