BRACKET

LAKE CHARLES—McNeese volleyball has a tough task ahead of them when they open the 2016 Southland Conference Volleyball Tournament against regular season champion and the tournament's top seed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 4 p.m. Friday in Conway, Arkansas.
 
The opening round and semifinals will be streamed live on the Southland Digital Network. The championship match will be shown exclusively on ESPN3 on Sunday. All matches will have live stats and can be followed at sidearmstats.com/southland/wvball/
 
McNeese (10-21, 6-10 SLC) will enter the tournament as the eighth seed and will be making a league best 29^th overall tournament appearance. The Cowgirls are also making its second straight tournament appearance under third year head coach Ashleigh Fitzgerald. The last time McNeese made back-to-back tournament appearances was in 2007 and 2008 with Fitzgerald serving as the Cowgirls assistant coach under head coach Dale Starr.
 
The meeting against the Islanders (21-7, 16-0 SLC) will be the second of the season and second in less than a month. McNeese fell in straight sets (25-13, 25-16, 25-13) at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on November 3. The Islanders also eliminated the Cowgirls from the tournament last year in the opening round with a straight set win.
 
Senior Bridget Justis, an All-SLC honorable mention selection will lead McNeese into the tournament. The Ozark, Missouri native tallied 319 digs and led the conference with 5.23 per set. As a team, McNeese ranks second in the league with 17.25 digs per set.
 
The perfect conference record for the Islanders is their second straight season they produced an unblemished conference record and they will be looking for their second straight tournament title.