PALO ALTO, CALIF. | Alabama State will match up with top-seeded Stanford in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament Friday night at 9 pm CST inside of Maples Pavilion.
 
Duke and Loyola Marymount join the Lady Hornets and Cardinal in the field and will get things started with a 6:30 pm match. The winner of the Duke/LMU matchup faces the winner of No. 1 seed and host Stanford/Alabama State Saturday, Dec. 1 at 8 p.m.
 
Alabama State (23-17, 16-2) picked up its fifth Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) tournament title in six years with a dominating performance against the competition. The Lady Hornets entered the tournament as the No. 2 seed and took down top-seeded Alabama A&M in the tournament finale. Junior Bayle' Bennett was named the tournament's most  outstanding player for the second time in three years.
 
The SWAC Player of the Year, Candace Martin, enters the tournament with an even 300 blocks for her career following a stellar 2018 campaign that saw the Memphis, Tenn. native accrue 125 total blocks. Bennett (385 kills), a first-team All-SWAC selection, and Krysta Medearis (365 kills), a second team All-SWAC selection, lead the Lady Hornets' offensive attack. Kori Kutsch also garnered first team honors after leading the conference in total assists (1,082). She is Alabama State's all-time leader in service aces with 133. Alabama State has tallied 209 service aces in 2018, good for fifth nationally.
 
The Cardinal (28-1, 20-0), who advanced to the semifinals in last year's tournament, are led by Pac-12 Player of the Year Kathryn Plummer. Plummer is Stanford's top attacker, having put away 447 kills on a .284 attack percentage. The 6'6 junior hitter is one of five Stanford players that has amassed at least 225 total points on the season.  Flanking Plummer is fellow 6'6 junior Audrianna Fitzmorris, who has put down 284 spikes on a sparkling .352 attack percentage to go with 116 total blocks. Meghan McClure is third on the team with 273 kills. Anchoring the middle is senior Tami Alade, who has chipped in 167 kills and leads the team in hitting percentage (.402) and blocks (157.0). Additionally, Alade is the national leader in blocks per set (1.83). Jenna Gray, the Pac-12 Setter of the Year, orchestrates the offense, having dished out 1,230 assists on the year. Pac-12 Libero of the Year Morgan Hentz patrols the back line. With Hentz anchoring the defense, the Cardinal have the best opponent hitting percentage in the Pac-12, allowing other teams just a .165 hitting rate. She was named Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week five times this season. She is one of 35 players in league history to collect over 1,500 career digs (1,580 digs).
 
Follow the Hornets
For complete coverage of Alabama State University volleyball, follow the Hornets on social media @BamaStateVB (Twitter), /BamaStateSports (Facebook) and @BamaStateSports (Instagram) or visit the official home of Alabama State athletics at BamaStateSports.com