The WSU women’s volleyball team (21-11, 11-9) saw its season-long body of work pay off on Sunday with a selection to the 2016 NCAA Tournament.

After finishing in fifth place in the Pac-12, the Cougars play the Marquette Golden Eagles (23-8) on Thursday in the first round in Madison, Wisconsin. With a win, the Cougars move on to face either host No. 3 Wisconsin (25-4) or Howard University (20-9) on Saturday.

This is the 11th trip to the NCAA Tournament for the WSU volleyball program and the first under sixth-year WSU Head Coach Jen Greeny, who was named Pac-12 Conference Volleyball Coach of the Year.

“I’m extremely proud of this team,” Greeny said. “We’ve worked very hard to get back to the NCAA tournament. It was really exciting seeing Washington State announced today in the selection show and we’re excited to go play.”

After starting conference play with five-consecutive wins, the program’s best since 1997, WSU went on to lose seven of its next nine games in a midseason lull. However, the team responded to close the season with four wins in its final six matches and is poised to return to the postseason.

“Because we play in the Pac-12, we see these high-level tournaments every week throughout conference play,” senior defensive specialist Tani Stephens said.

With only a few days to prepare, Greeny said the team’s biggest challenge is “not knowing a whole lot about our opponent.”

WSU faced all but two of the other 11 Pac-12 teams twice in conference play and heads to Wisconsin with no recent experience against any of the three schools.

“We worry about what’s on our side of the net and it’s nice to have the home court advantage, but we played against teams in their home gym and beat them despite the crowd,” junior outside hitter Casey Schoenlein said. “Essentially what it comes down to is you’re just going out there and playing your game.”

Stephens and the team’s other three seniors are relishing the opportunity to finally compete in an NCAA Tournament game.

“I think it’s a long time coming and there’s been a lot of hard work put in for a really long time in this program,” Stephens said. “For us four seniors to go out that way is incredible.”

For the second consecutive year, senior outside hitter Kyra Holt was selected to the All-Pac-12 Volleyball First Team while sophomore middle blocker Taylor Mims and Schoenlein earned Pac-12 Honorable Mentions.

“It means everything and all our hard work for four years has finally paid off,” Holt said. “We came here to make a change and we’ve done that. … I always knew we were going to make the tournament because I’ve always had faith in us, but it was just eye-opening and a great experience I would say.”

First serve against the Golden Eagles is set for 3 p.m. on Thursday. The match will be broadcast on www.ncaa.com.