SEATTLE, WASH. -- Cal State LA's women's volleyball team, the West Region champions, put in final preparations on Wednesday for its first national quarterfinal match in 17 years on Thursday.

The No. 4 Golden Eagles (24-6) will face No. 5 Gannon (29-5) in one of four quarterfinal matches at Seattle Pacific's Royal Brougham Pavilion on Thursday. The Golden Eagles and Golden Knights will be the third of four matches on the day. In other matches, No. 3 West Texas A&M meets No. 6 Wingate at noon, No. 2 Barry meets No. 7 Missouri-St. Louis at 2:30 p.m., Cal State LA meets Gannon at 5 p.m. and No. 1 Concordia-St. Paul meets No. 8 Southern New Hampshire at 7:30 p.m.

The winner of the Cal State LA-Gannon match will meet the winner of the Concordia-St. Paul-Southern New Hampshire match on Friday at 6:30 p.m. and the championship match is Saturday at 3 p.m.

Cal State LA is making its first trip to the Elite Eight since 2005 and has reached the national quarterfinals for the third time in program history. The Golden Eagles are seeking their first-ever national championship.

The Golden Eagles' first-round opponent, Gannon, is coming off its second straight Atlantic Region championship and is one of only two teams back from last year's Elite Eight. The Golden Knights, in fact, are making their fourth trip to the Elite Eight in the past five years, and enter the match on a 17-match winning streak.

The Golden Eagles, meanwhile, have gone on a sustained run of success after opening the season with a 2-3 mark. Despite losing five starters from the 2021 team that reached the West Region championship match, Cal State LA went 23-3 over its next 26 matches and won CCAA and West Region titles for the first time since 2005. One of the losses during that stretch, a five-set defeat to Sonoma State in the conference tournament semi-finals, might have been what the Golden Eagles needed to reset and refocus for the task of winning three straight matches in the regional.

Task completed.

The West Region champs endured a lengthy trip on Tuesday to reach Seattle in time for the Opening Ceremonies of the NCAA Division II Fall Festival. Flights were delayed into Seattle for most of the day and, in fact, the Opening Ceremonies were pushed back to an 8 p.m. start due to the travel difficulties so many teams had. Seattle is the site this week for Division II championships in volleyball, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's cross country and women's field hockey and the student-athletes from all the championship contenders were treated to a ceremony on Tuesday night that kicked off the Fall Festival.

The Golden Eagles then took part in a fun community service project on Wednesday morning at Leschi Elementary in Seattle. The Cal State LA student-athletes interacted with the elementary-school students for nearly an hour and featured reading, writing and, of course, recess. There were plenty of smiles and good wishes exchanged between the college student-athletes and the elementary school students.

Cal State LA then put in its final 55-minute practice in Seattle Pacific's gym and, afterwards, head coach Juan Figueroa and players Jaden Grova and Shelby Grubbs took part in a pre-tournament press conference.

The Golden Eagles enter Thursday's quarterfinal enjoying the chance at making history and also coming off a brilliant performance in the West Regional where they won their last eight sets while beating Sonoma State in four sets and sweeping Central Washington and Chaminade.