NOW PLAYING: Inside Radford Sports previews the 2011 Big South Volleyball Championships

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Radford heads down to Charleston, S.C. for the 2011 Big South Volleyball Tournament hosted by Charleston Southern from Nov. 17-20 at the CSU Fieldhouse. The Highlanders (15-14, 9-5 Big South) finished third in the regular season and will face the High Point Panthers (9-20, 6-8) in the nightcap on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.

Radford, under the guidance of fourth-year head coach Marci Jenkins, enters the tournament as its highest seed since the Highlanders won the regular season in 2001. Along with the finish and seed, the red and white posted the most conference wins and its first above .500 regular season since 2001.

The Highlanders earned the three seed, courtesy of a four-match winning streak to conclude the regular season. One of those victories was a five-set comeback win at UNC Asheville, Radford's first triumph in Asheville since 2001.

The teams split during the regular season, each winning on their respective home courts. It is a rematch of last year's first round in which the Panthers won, 3-0. They also met in 2008, another 3-0 triumph by High Point.

Radford is paced by the rookie trio of Emma Deininger (Wallingford, Pa./Strath Haven), Rachel Brummitt (Plano, Texas/Plano West) and Rachel Wiechecki (Wilmington, Del./Ursuline Academy).

Deininger and Wiechecki have paced the offense, while Brummitt is the glue of the defensive unit that also includes the other two freshmen.

Deininger is ranked third in the league in attack percentage (.297) and total blocks (104) and fourth in blocks per set (0.98). The four-time Big South Freshman of the Week has recorded 12 matches of 10-plus kills, the middle blocker is second on the squad with 218 kills.

Wiechecki, a two-time Big South Player of the Week, posts a team-best 290 kills and 2.48 kills per set. She is second on the squad in digs (247) and is fifth in blocks (38). An outside hitter, she tallied a team-best six double-doubles and posted 14 and 10 double figure kill and dig matches, respectively.

Brummitt garnered the league's Defensive Player of the Week five times. The match's top defensive player in 22 of 29 matches this season, she has accumulated a conference-best 609 digs and is ranked 36th in the NCAA with 5.21 digs per set. As Radford's libero, Brummitt played in all 117 games and racked up a league-high 17, 20-dig matches and three more 30-plus efforts. She has also chipped in offensively with a team-best 38 aces.

The three-day tournament concludes on Sunday with the championship match at 2 p.m.