The North Idaho College volleyball team has done some great things in recent years, qualifying for the NJCAA tournament four times in the past seven seasons.

But there's one more accomplishment the Cardinals can check off their to-do list this week.

NIC can qualify for nationals in back-to-back seasons for the first time in school history this week, when the Cardinals host the Region 18 tournament Friday and Saturday at Christianson Gym.

NIC (21-8), the No. 1 seed, plays host to either No. 4 Utah State-Eastern Utah (6-20) or No. 5 Snow (5-13) on Friday at 7 p.m. in a semifinal match. The winner qualifies for nationals, and advances to the championship match Saturday at 1 p.m. Utah State-Eastern plays Snow on Friday at 1 p.m.

No. 3 Southern Idaho (19-10) plays No. 6 Colorado Northwestern (3-19) on Friday at 10 a.m. That winner plays No. 2 Salt Lake (22-6) at 4 p.m. in the other semifinal for the region's other berth to nationals, and the other spot in Saturday's championship match.

NIC qualified for nationals in 2004, '06, '08 and '10, winning the Region 18 title each season.

Region 18 receives two berths to nationals in volleyball because of the strength of the Scenic West Athletic Conference in that sport, and the region's strong performance at nationals, NIC athletic director Al Williams said.

After NIC stumbled in a loss at Utah State-Eastern last Friday, then won at Colorado Northwestern the following day to clinch the right to host the regional tournament, coach Kandice Kelly promised a tough week of practice this week, "so it doesn't happen again."

“Hopefully that’s a reality check, Kelly said of the loss at USU-Eastern, “that you can’t overlook anybody, or any team. I think they will learn from it — I hope so anyway. This could have been the best thing anyway. You don’t ever want to lose, but we’re not going to forget how it felt, and it wasn’t a good feeling.”

NIC is 2-1 vs. Utah State-Eastern this season, with a 3-2 win and a sweep of the Golden Eagles prior to being swept last Friday. The Cardinals won 3-2 at Snow, and beat the Badgers 3-1 at home.

Soccer teams

at districts

Women: The NIC women’s soccer team (14-1-1) opens the District B Championships on Friday in Hutchinson, Kan., against Butler County (17-3-1).

The winner will advance to play the winner of the Hutchinson-Laramie County match for the only bid to the NJCAA tournament starting Nov. 17 in Melbourne, Fla.

“The girls are pretty excited,” NIC coach Dan Hogan said. “Right now, we’re just worried about getting there.”

NIC is seeking its first trip to nationals since 2008, when the Cardinals finished third.

“This team is defending a lot better,” Hogan said. “I think overall, we’re a little bit more focused as soccer players. Our last team had some good athletes that dominated the midfield, but this team is a little more balanced.”

NIC beat Laramie County in Wyoming 2-0 on Oct. 14.

“I think they’re as good as anyone else,” said Hogan of his squad. “We’re just as good as any team that we’ve seen in the NJCAA. It just depends on how we do and we’ll go from there.”

Men: The North Idaho men’s soccer team will await the winner of a match between Pima (16-6-1) and Northwest College (15-4-1) in the West District championship game on Saturday in Tucson, Ariz.

“We’ve seen Northwest twice, but haven’t seen Pima yet,” NIC coach Ken Thompson said. “We’ll have a chance to get down their early and watch, so we’ll gather information from that.”

NIC lost both matches to Northwest College in mid-September.

“I think we stand a good chance against them,” said Thompson of facing Northwest for a third time. “We’ve gotten better since then and were trying to figure out our lineup still. We’ll be seeing a team that played a match the day before. We might not have the flair of the other teams, but it might work having a bye this year.”

Pima ousted Yavapai to advance to the district tournament.

“Pima has been in and out of the rankings all year,” Thompson said. “They haven’t made it out of their region because of Yavapai being so dominant.”

The winner of Saturday’s match advances to the NJCAA tournament Nov. 17-20 in Phoenix.