Sara Horn believes her Iowa Central program is ready to compete with the best of the best beginning here on Thursday.

The Tritons, who finished 30-9 this season, were given the No. 10 seed after capturing the Region XI-B tournament title with a five-set victory over Des Moines Area.

First up for Iowa Central will be Mesa (22-9), the sixth-seed, at 10 a.m. Central inside the Charleston Civic Center on Thursday morning.

Owens, who went 36-1 this year, is the No. 1 overall seed, followed by Parkland, Coffeyville, Lincoln Land and Sauk Valley.

The remaining national qualifiers are Pasco-Hernando State, Central, Cowley, Mott, Northeast (winners over Kirkwood in the Region XI-A final), Carl Sandburg, Northeastern Oklahoma A&M, Potomac State and Harcum.

"We've had a great week of prep for nationals," Horn said. "We've played a handful of teams (that also qualified), seen a few others and have been able to track down film on all of them.

"We've been able to work on situations that we will see and watch some film of the teams that we will play in the first two rounds."

Parkland is the two-time defending national champion, besting Region 24 rival Lincoln Land in the finals each of the past two seasons. They are looking to join Kishwaukee, who won three straight from 2006-08, as the only programs to accomplish such a feat.

During the regular season, Iowa Central played five different squads headed to nationals, including three matches against Cowley.

The Tritons earned wins over Northeast, Central, Carl Sandburg and one over Cowley. They dropped the other two matches with Cowley and were also bested by Coffeyville.

"We had a great schedule this year," Horn said. "Looking at it before we started in August, we knew we were facing a lot of ranked teams and would have three or four tough matches at every tournament.

"That kind of experience should help us this week. We were challenged a lot, and I think it definitely made us stronger and ready to face adversity."

Gabby Sullivan, a sophomore, ranks second in the nation in kills with 602. She is also second in attacks, sixth in kills per set, and fourth overall in points scored.

Abby Lohrmann is seventh in the nation with 1,305 assists and 16th in assists per set. She also ranks 24th with 63 aces.

Former Fort Dodge Senior High standout Liza Hatcher has recorded 73 service aces, good for 10th-most in the country.

"A major strength of this team is the sophomore and captain leadership we have," Horn said. "They are also great at being able to put their game faces on and leave everything else off the court that doesn't belong there.

"Our girls have showed a lot of maturity as far as coming to play every game and not letting outside distractions bother them. They are also very coachable, and want to learn and get better."

Freshmen Libby Zorn and Kayla Faldet have 283 and 218 kills, with Faldet adding 131 total blocks.

"This team has a lot of strengths," Horn said. "We don't have an area where we have any major weaknesses. We have all the tools we need to compete against the top teams in the tournament; we just need to come out strong and play the way we know we can."

NJCAA DIV. II VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

Thursday's first round matches

Owens (36-0) vs. Harcum (20-7); Central (33-10) vs. Cowley (37-6); Lincoln Land (34-6) vs. Carl Sandburg (24-14); Sauk Valley (32-8) vs. Northeast (18-14); Parkland (48-1) vs. Potomac (22-5); Mesa (22-9) vs. Iowa Central (30-9); Coffeyville (40-2) vs. Northeast Oklahoma A&M (22-10); Pasco-Hernando State (22-7) vs. Mott (29-7).