Despite a two-match losing streak to end the season, the Washington State volleyball team is back in the field of 64.

The Cougars, who finished in fourth place in the Pac-12 Conference, was announced Sunday as one of the teams to make the NCAA tournament field.

Washington State (19-11) will take on Northern Colorado (24-6) in the first round at 2:30 p.m. Thursday at the Ferrell Center on the campus of Baylor University in Waco, Texas.

The winner faces the winner of Thursday's other match between Baylor (20-5) and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (19-8) at 5 p.m. Friday in the second round.

It is the sixth consecutive season the Cougars, under the leadership of 10th-year coach Jen Greeny, have made the NCAA field. In all, Washington State now has made the national tournament 16 times since 1991.

The Cougars will be looking to win a match in the tournament for the first time since 2018, when they beat Northern Arizona and Tennessee by identical 3-1 set scores before falling to eventual national champion Stanford in four sets on Dec. 7 at Maples Pavilion in the Sweet 16.

Washington State has made it to the national quarterfinal round just once, in 1996, when, once again they lost to Stanford. The Cougars have advanced to the Sweet 16 a total four times in their history.

Before the two-match losing streak to end the season, Washington State won six of seven matches to get to within striking distance of the Pac-12 title. But a loss to third-place and No. 17 Utah on Wednesday ended those hopes. The Cougars were hoping to match their football brothers with a win in Saturday's Apple Cup against No. 12 Washington, but the Huskies won in four to claim the outright conference title after UCLA also lost.

Washington State might be going into the tournament limping, as junior outside hitter Pia Timmer hasn’t played since the Cougs’ Nov. 12 sweep at California. Timmer leads the team with 3.91 kills per set and 348 on the season in just 89 sets played. She also lead WSU with 4.52 points per set and has a .225 attack percentage.

Junior Magda Jehlarova has been a rock in the middle for the Cougs, averaging 2.4 kills per set with a .361 attack percentage. She also averages a team-best 1.45 blocks per set with 159 total rejections on the season.

Senior outside htiter Penny Tusa and junior middle blocker Kalyah Williams buoy the offensive effort. Williams averages 2.68 points per set, 2.28 kills per set and has a .276 attack percentage. Tusa averages 2.2 points per set and 1.65 kills per set.

Freshman opposite-side hitter Katy Ryan has been coming on strong as of late. She is averaging 2.49 points per set, 2.12 kills per set and has an attack percentage of .315.

Junior defensive specialist Karly Basham leads the way with 3.33 digs per set.

The Bears tied with Weber State for the Big Sky regular season title, then beat the Wildcats 3-2 in the conference tournament championship Nov. 20 in Ogden, Utah.

Northern Colorado, which has won nine consecutive matches since a 3-1 loss Oct. 23 at Portland State, is paced by Kailey Jo Ince, who averaged 3.25 kills per set and 2.35 digs per set. Lauren Strain adds 2.57 kills per set, while Laura Katarzynski chipped in 3.5 digs per set and Kyndall Feather averages 3.25 kills per set. The Bears are 11-2 this season when the match goes three sets, and are 5-0 when it is extended to five sets.

The two teams have played twice, with WSU winning both matches. However, they never have played each other in the NCAA tournament. The last time the teams played was in 2007, and the Cougars won the match 3-1 in the Cougar Classic when Brian Heffernan was the WSU coach.

Walden may be reached at (208) 848-2258, dwalden@lmtribune.com, or on Twitter @waldo9939.