GREENWOOD - The sixth-seeded Lander volleyball team earned an at-large berth into the NCAA Division II National Tournament and will open with third-seeded Wingate University today at 12 p.m. at the USC Aiken Convocation Center. (Tournament Bracket | Southeast Region Website)

Since Lander began a volleyball team in 1998, this year's squad joins the 2008 team as the only Bearcat teams to reach the regional. This season the Bearcats won a school-record 24 games and set another best of 11 victories in the Peach Belt Conference.

Lander enters the tournament 24-12 overall, while Wingate is 28-4. The Bulldogs won the South Atlantic Conference regular-season title, but fell to Lenoir-Rhyne, 3-1, in the SAC Tournament championship game.

In other first-round games, top-seeded USC Aiken (27-5), the Peach Belt regular-season champion, will play No. 8 Erskine (22-6), the Conference Carolinas' regular-season and tournament champion; No. 2 Flagler (23-7), the PBC tournament champ, will face No. 7 Lenoir-Rhyne (23-7); and No. 4 Carson-Newman (26-7) will meet No. 5 Armstrong State (18-10).

The Southeast Region champion will face the Central Region winner in the quarterfinals at the Bob Martinez Athletics Center in Tampa, Fla. on Dec. 10, with the semfinals set for Dec. 12 and the national championship game Dec. 12.