By Katherine Jamtgaard. NEW ORLEANS, La. — The App State Volleyball team earned the Sun Belt East Division’s No. 1 seed in the 2024 SBC Volleyball Championship bracket, the league announced on Nov. 16.
As the East’s No. 1 seed, App State enters the tournament in the quarterfinal round on Friday, Nov. 22 (2:30 p.m. ET, 1:30 p.m. CT). The Mountaineers will face the winner of the match between West No. 4 seed Troy and East No. 5 seed Georgia State. App State’s opponent will be determined after Thursday’s 2:30 p.m. ET (1:30 p.m. CT) first-round matchup between the Trojans and the Panthers.
Head coach Sarah Rumely Noble’s squad is the first App State team to earn the East’s No. 1 seed since the conference began divisional seeding in 2020.
Since joining the conference, the Mountaineers and Trojans have met twice in the SBC Tournament. App State swept the Trojans, 3-0, in the quarterfinal round of the 2015 tournament on the way to the SBC championship match. Last season, the No. 6-seeded Mountaineers fell short to the No. 3-seeded Trojans in the second round. App State and Georgia State have yet to meet in the Sun Belt Tournament.
This is the first season that the tournament field will feature only 10 of the Sun Belt’s 14 teams.
Season Review
App State clinched the Sun Belt East Division title for the first time since 2018 and are 17-8 (11-3 SBC) this fall. The Mountaineers went on a seven-match win streak from Oct. 24 to Nov. 14. App State’s conference stretch was highlighted by the program’s first back-to-back victories over James Madison since the Dukes joined the Sun Belt as well as the first pair of wins over Coastal Carolina since the 2018 campaign. Only dropping a match to Old Dominion on Oct. 12 and Georgia State on Oct. 19, the Mountaineers clinched the division title with a 3-0 sweep of Marshall on Nov. 8. The Black and Gold split its final matches with Troy, defeating the Trojans, 3-2, on Nov. 14 before falling short by a 3-1 margin on Nov. 15.
In nonconference action, App State swept Gardner-Webb (Sept. 7) and Winthrop (Sept. 13) and posted five-set victories over Xavier (Aug. 30), ETSU (Sept. 6) and Wofford (Sept. 14).
Individually, redshirt-junior Addison Heidemann garnered a pair of Sun Belt Setter of the Week honors. Heidemann was the first Mountaineer to earn the SBC Setter of the Week distinction since 2019. She first earned the accolade for her performance at the Wake Forest Invitational (Sept. 20-21), where she totaled 93 assists and helped the Mountaineers to a .329 team hitting percentage. She collected her second honor after the Mountaineers clinched the SBC East Division title with a pair of victories over Marshall (Nov. 8-9). Against the Thundering Herd, she totaled 99 assists, averaging 12.38 per set. She also served up three aces, made 11 digs, and went up for one block.
Senior Lulu Ambrose surpassed 1,000 career kills in the Mountaineers’ regular season finale against Troy on Nov. 15. In her time at App State, Ambrose has tallied 1,002 career kills, averaging 2.41 kills per set, in addition to 262 career digs. This season, Ambrose has tallied 265 kills and 104 digs.
Road to the NCAA Championship
The winner of the Sun Belt Volleyball Championship will earn one of 32 automatic bids to the NCAA Tournament. The Dec. 1 selection show will announce the remaining 32 teams, selected at-large, that will fill out the field of 64.
The first and second rounds will be held Dec. 5-7 at non-predetermined campus sites. Regionals will be held Dec. 12-15, also at non-predetermined campus sites, and the semifinal and championship rounds will be held Dec.19-22 at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Ky.
2024 Sun Belt Volleyball Tournament Schedule
Nov. 21-24, 2024 | Foley, Ala. | Foley Sports Tourism Complex
First Round – Thurs. Nov. 21
- Match 1 – 2:30 p.m. ET (1:30 p.m. CT) – (4W) Troy vs. (5E) Georgia State
- Match 2 – 5:30 p.m. ET (4:30 p.m. CT) – (4E) Coastal Carolina vs. (5W) Southern Miss
Quarterfinals – Fri. Nov. 22
- Match 3 – 12:00 p.m. ET (11:00 a.m. CT) – (2W) Texas State vs. (3E) James Madison
- Match 4 – 2:30 p.m. ET (1:30 p.m. CT) – (1E) App State vs. Winner Match 1
- Match 5 – 5:30 p.m. (4:30 p.m. CT) – (1W) Arkansas State vs. Winner Match 2
- Match 6 – 8 p.m. ET (7:00 p.m. CT) – (2E) Georgia Southern vs. (3W) South Alabama
Semifinals – Sat. Nov. 23
- Match 7 – 3:00 p.m. ET (2:00 p.m. CT) – Winner Match 3 vs. Winner Match 4
- Match 8 – 6:00 p.m. (5:00 p.m. CT) – Winner Match 5 vs. Winner Match 6
Championship – Sun. Nov. 24
- Match 9 – 4:00 p.m. ET (3:00 p.m. CT) – Winner Match 7 vs. Winner Match 8
