If the Cal State San Bernardino volleyball team is to make it to yet another NCAA Division II West Regional final, they’ll have to take a tougher road.

The Coyotes are making their 15th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance but they’re seeded sixth for the eight-team event which begins Thursday at Northwest Nazarene in Nampa, Idaho.

The Coyotes (20-6) will face third seed Western Washington (21-6) in the quarterfinal.

“(Western) is an excellent team; well coached and very good defensively,” Coyotes head coach Kim Cherniss said. “We have had some great battles against them in the past and this one should be no exception.”

The two teams met earlier in the season at the Hampton Inn-Wildcat Invitational in Ellensburg, Wash. The Coyotes and Vikings played to a five-set match with CSUSB winning 3-2 (26-28, 17-25, 25-19, 25-14, 15-11).

The Coyotes hit .309 for the match on the strength of 72 kills, 17 errors in 178 attacks. Senior All-American Tori May had 17 kills and fellow All-American Brenna McIntosh with 11 and Ashley Solis 10.

The Great Northwest Athletic Conference has four teams in the regional — top seed Northwest Nazarene, No. 2 Alaska-Anchorage, No. 3 Western Washington and No. 4 Central. Washington.

The Pac-West has two — No. 5 BYU Hawaii and No. 8 Dixie State and the CCAA with two — CSUSB and No. 7 Sonoma State.

NCAA West Regional
Northwest Nazarene host — Nampa, Idaho
November 20-22, 2014

(First-round times to be determined)
Thursday, Nov. 22
No. 3 Western Washington vs. No. 6 Coyotes
No. 2 Alaska-Anchorage vs. No. 7 Sonoma State
No. 4 Central Washington vs. No. 5 BYU-Hawaii
No. 1 Northwest Nazarene vs. No. 8 Dixie State

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