NEWARK, DE – The University of Delaware volleyball team will find out its first round opponent in the NCAA Tournament this weekend after the national committee announces the playoff bracket during its annual selection show.

The event will be televised live on ESPNU this Sunday beginning at 8 p.m.

The Blue Hens (30-4), who received one of the NCAA’s 31 automatic bids after winning the Colonial Athletic Association championship last weekend, will be making their first trip to the tournament in program history.

After the 33 at-large selections are made, the NCAA will pick the 16 teams who will serve as hosts for the first and second rounds. The field will then be broken up into four-team pods based upon their distance from the 16 host schools.

The first and second rounds of the Division I Championship will be held between November 29 and December 2 on the regional campus sites.

The winners of the first two rounds will advance to the Regionals, which will be hosted by Penn State, Florida, Stanford, and Wisconsin on December 7-8.

The semifinals and finals of the NCAA Tournament will both be held at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento, CA on December 13 and 15.

Delaware is looking to become the third CAA team to win a first round match since the league sent its first contender to the tournament in 1984. George Mason defeated Indiana during the first round in 1995, while Hofstra downed Cornell last season to advance to the round of 32.

The Blue Hens are led by a balanced attack consisting of first team All-CAA selections Colleen Walsh, Megan Welch, and Steph Barry.

Walsh leads the team with 543 kills, while Welch has a team-best 1,606 assists. Barry also leads the Hens with 769 digs and 61 aces.

In addition to those three, Kelly Gibson, a third team All-CAA selection this year, is second on the team with 365 digs and fourth with 343 kills. Freshman Katie Dennehy (above), an All-Rookie pick, is also second on the team with 380 kills.

The Blue Hens last made a national postseason appearance in 1994 when they won the North Atlantic Conference title and advanced to the National Invitational Volleyball Championship held in Kansas City, MO.