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INDIANAPOLIS- With its Midwest Regional championship and 24-match win streak in tow, the ninth-ranked UIndy volleyball team is off to Saint Paul, Minn. and the Gangelhoff Center this week for its first-ever appearance at the NCAA Division II Elite Eight.  The event will be hosted by the two-time defending national champion Concordia, St. Paul Golden Bears, who also happen to be the Greyhounds' Thursday opponent.

Thursday's national quarterfinal match will be the first-ever meeting between Concordia and Indianapolis.  The match, scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. CST, will be the fourth and final quarterfinal of the day.  Live stats and a video webcast will be available free of charge for all seven matches at the 2009 championships.  Click here to view the official tournament webpage for more information.

About the Golden Bears: Winners of an NCAA D-II record 71 straight matches, the Condordia, St. Paul Golden Bears (34-0) are the top-ranked team in AVCA Division II Coaches Poll, a position they have held since Sep. 29 of last season.  The Golden Bears are the only undefeated school in Division II and have earned their fifth Elite Eight berth in the last seven years.

UIndy vs. The Field: Including its three wins in the regional bracket, UIndy has compiled a 13-1 record versus 2009 NCAA tournament teams, including a sweep of Atlantic Region champs California (Pa.) Sep. 4 at the North Alabama Classic.  The Hounds' lone loss of the season came at the hands of then 17th-ranked Lewis Sep. 18, a loss they avenged at both the GLVC Tournament final and the Midwest Regional final.

UIndy's Regional Run:  As the host and top seed of the Midwest Regional, UIndy fought its way through the Midwest bracket to earn its first regional crown.  The Hounds earned a third-straight trip to the NCAA second round with a sweep of eighth-seeded Michigan Tech in the opener.

A talented Hillsdale squad gave the Greyhounds a run in the regional semis, as the fifth-seeded Chargers took two of the first three sets before Indianapolis won the final two, marking the second time this season the Hounds came from behind to beat Hillsdale.

The stage was set for an epic UIndy/Lewis match-up in a grudge match to determine the Midwest champs.  The contest would ultimately not deliver the drama promised, however, as the Greyhounds held the 11th-ranked Flyers to a minuscule .047 hitting percentage in a 25-16, 25-21, 25-13 win.

Record-Setting Season:  By nearly every measure, the 2009 season has been the most successful in UIndy volleyball history.  The Greyhounds have racked up a program-record and Division-II-leading 38 wins while also clinching a new program mark for winning percentage (.974 now, .950 at worst).  Coming off the team's second-ever conference championship and first-ever regional crown, the roster features a record number of AVCA All-American (see note below).

All-American Girls: Three Hounds earned All-Americans accolades from the American Volleyball Coaches Association, one more than the number of previous UIndy honorees combined.  Junior setter Cheneta Morrison (1st team), senior libero Kyleigh Turner (3rd team) and junior outside hitter Lyndsay Callahan (honorable mention) all garnered recognition from the nation's coaches, with Morrison having the distinction of being UIndy's first All-American First Team honoree.  Callahan and Morrison are first-time All-Americans while Turner earned All-American Honorable Mention from the AVCA last season.

Indy 300: Already the program's all-time leader in victories, Head Coach Jody Butera picked up her 300th career win early this season with a sweep over Northwest Missouri State Sep. 12.  Heading into play this week, Butera has compiled a record 324-154 (.678) in 13 seasons at Indianapolis.  The Massachusetts native entered the season 28th among active D-II coaches in win percentage and 32nd in wins.

Head Turner:  As the team's only senior and one of two co-captains, libero Kyleigh Turner is helping to make her final collegiate season a special one.  Turner is the lone remaining member of the winningest class in program history. Heading into the Elite Eight, she has been a part of 124 UIndy victories in her time on campus, 14 more than the previous record set by last year's senior class.  The Muncie, Ind. native holds school records for most digs in a career and in a season.

Head of the Class:  In addition to her athletic talents, Turner also stands out in the classroom, as she was named to the Academic All-District V Second Team by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).  UIndy's four-year starting libero holds down a 3.93 cumulative GPA in business education and is the first Greyhound to be named Academic All-District since 2005 (Whitey Boling).  She was selected as the GLVC Volleyball Scholar Athlete of the Year in 2008 and is expected to pick up her fourth Academic All-GLVC nod this season.

Dig, Kill, Repeat:  Junior Lyndsay Callahan reached a pair of career milestones this season, surpassing the 1,000 mark in both career digs and kills.  She reached the digs milestone while hitting .345 in a 10-kill, 11-dig effort in a sweep of 13th-ranked Truman State Sep. 5 at the North Alabama Invitational.

Callahan hit the 1,000-kill plateau in the Hounds' win over Taylor on Oct. 13, as the team co-captain coincidently again hit .345 to go with 12 kills and 11 digs versus NAIA's 23rd-ranked squad.  She is one of four Greyhounds to amass over 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs in a career.

Triple-Double:  In the Hounds' Nov. 20 regional-semifinal thriller versus Hillsdale, junior Cheneta Morrison notched the first Indianapolis triple-double in over six years with 55 assists, 15 digs and 10 kills in the come-from-behind win.  She had come close many times before, coming two digs shy vs. Minnesota Crookston Aug. 29, two kills short against No. 15 Minnesota St.-Mankato, and a single dig light at UMSL, to name a few.  The All-American, one of only two players to twice be named GLVC Player of the Week this year, is in her first collegiate season in the setter's role after being named to the All-GLVC Second Team as an opposite-side hitter last year.

UIndy's last triple-double came Oct. 25, 2003 when Emily Huey garnered 11 kills, 13 assists and 15 digs in a five-game win at Missouri-St. Louis.

Poll Position:  UIndy finds itself ranked ninth in the nation according to the latest AVCA Division II Coaches Poll (Nov. 16).  The Hounds previously hit number nine back on Sep. 14 - their highest ranking ever -  before hovering at 12 for a month and then ranking 10th for two straight weeks.

This week's championship field features five top-ten teams (#1 Concordia, #2 Cal. State San Bernardino, #5 West Texas A&M, #6 Tampa and #9 UIndy) and three unranked squads (California (Pa.), Dowling and Flagler).