2017 NAIA National Invitational
- April 19-22
- Petty Sports & Recreational Complex
- St. Louis, MO
- Schedule/results
Eight teams have been announced into the 2017 NAIA Men’s Volleyball National Invitational tournament. The top-four teams have a secured spot going into pool play, with the bottom four having to compete in play-in matches to determine the six team field for the tournament.
The top-four seeded teams include:
- #1 Grand View (Iowa)
- #2 Missouri Baptist
- #3 Park (Missouri)
- #4 Warner (Florida)
The bottom four seeded teams are:
- #5 Ottawa (Kansas)
- #6 Lourdes (Ohio)
- #7 Cardinal Stritch (Wisconsin)
- #8 Missouri Valley
The play-in matches for the bottom four will be held on Wednesday, April 19 with Ottawa facing Missouri Valley at 1 PM and Lourdes taking on Cardinal Stritch at 4 PM. The winners of each match will be seeded into either Pool A or Pool B.
Pool A |
Pool B |
| #1 Grand View | #2 Missouri Baptist |
| #3 Park | #4 Warner |
| TBA | TBA |
The pool play schedule will begin on April 20-21 with four matches the first day and two the second. Concluding pool play will begin the semifinal round on April 21 followed by the championship match on April 22. You can see the full schedule, here.
This year’s field included five automatic qualifiers and three at-large bids. The automatic qualifiers were determined by conference/group tournaments. The five winners were Grand View, Warner, Missouri Baptist, Cardinal Stritch and Lourdes. The at-large bids were Park, Ottawa and Missouri Valley who were selected based off the final regular-season coaches top-10 poll from April 9.
Men’s volleyball at the NAIA level is in its second year of “Invitational Sport” status – meaning that at least 25 schools and institutions sponser men’s volleyball. With the conclusion of this year’s NAIA National Invitational, the sport will be reviewed by the National Administrative Council (NAC) – the governing body of NAIA sport status.
If approved by the NAC and the sport can meet a minimum of 40 institutions sponsoring the sport at the intercollegiate varsity level, then men’s volleyball would become a NAIA National Championship sport beginning in the 2017-2018 season.
Leave a Reply