CANYON, Tex. – It will be a familiar matchup for the Western New Mexico University volleyball team Thursday when they face Colorado School of Mines in the opening round of the NCAA Regional Tournament that is hosted by West Texas A&M.


The top eight teams in the South Central Region will battle it out for one spot to advance to the final eight of the NCAA Tournament next week.


Colorado Mines comes in as the second seed, while the Lady Mustangs are the seventh seed. In their first matchup back on Oct. 25 in Golden, WNMU started strong claiming the first set, 28-26 and after dropping the next two sets, came back with a 25-23 fourth set win to force a deciding fifth set. The fifth set was controlled by the Lady Mustangs until the very last few points. An Angelina Pulu (Long Beach, CA/Robert A. Millikan High School) kill had WNMU at match point, 14-12, to which the Orediggers responded with four straight points to take the set and the match, 16-14.


CSM ended up taking the RMAC regular season crown, while Metro State won the RMAC Tournament. Pulu leads five Lady Mustangs with at least 100 kills as she has 345. Bobbi Bayer (Granby, CO/Eddyville Blakesburg ) has added 340, Kaysee Pilgrim (Phoenix, AZ/Barry Goldwater) with 262, Shannon Rich (Folsom, CA/Folsom) with 207 and Seluia "Ria" Falealili (Long Beach, CA/Long Beach Poly) with 174. Alyssa Meihack (Fallon, NV/Churchill County High School) was one of the top setters in the conference with 1,227 assists and she was also second on the team in digs (341) to Pulu's 418. Pilgrim (85) and Rich (81) led the team in blocks.


WNMU (23-6) fared well away from home this season going 10-3 in true road contests and 5-1 in neutral matches. They won their last two road matches against Colorado Mesa and Fort Lewis. This will be the first match away from Silver City since Nov. 9.


CSM (24-6) has one more win than the Lady Mustangs after defeating Fort Lewis in the first round of the RMAC Tournament before falling to Adams State. Melanie Wannamaker remains the main threat, both offensively and defensively, as she leads the team in kills with 487 and in total blocks with 93. She has company on offense with Alanna Winfield (399) and Sarah Pekarek (370) both over 300 kills. Danielle Johnson-Hazlewood has dished out 1,396 assists, while Hannah Margheim leads in digs with 508.


There will be other familiar matchups on Thursday as a pair of Lone Star teams will face each other for the fourth time this season in the first match when #3 Angelo State plays #6 Texas Woman's. The WNMU and CSM match will follow that one at around 1:30 p.m. (Mountain). A pair of RMAC teams will battle for the third time this season when #4 Regis faces #5 Metro State and in the final pairing of the day, top-seed and host West Texas A&M will play the No. 8 seed and Heartland Conference tournament winner Dallas Baptist. The four winning teams will move to the semifinals on Friday night.


Live stats and live video will be available and will be posted on wnmumustangs.com