NAIA Tournament Field Announced, Led by 19 Seeds and host Morningside

  0 volleymob | November 12th, 2018 | College - Women's Indoor, NAIA, News

Courtesy: NAIA 

Championship Schedule Watch Video Announcement Live

The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics has officially announced the teams and Opening Round pairings for the 2018 NAIA Volleyball National Championship. The 44-team event will get underway with 12 National Championship Opening Round matches at campus locations on Nov. 17.

The top 19 seeds and championship host Morningside (Iowa) automatically advance to the national championship final site in Sioux City, Iowa. Action inside the Tyson Events Center starts with three days of pool play from Nov. 27 – 29. The top two teams in each pool will advance to the elimination bracket on Nov. 30, and the national champion will be crowned Dec. 1 with first serve set for 7 p.m. CST on ESPN3.

This year’s field includes 33 automatic qualifiers, 10 at-large selections and one host berth (Morningside). The automatic berths are determined by regular-season champions, conference tournament title winners or runner-ups. The remaining at-large bids were determined by the final regular season Women’s Volleyball Coaches’ Top 25 Poll announced Monday. Final site pools will be determined on Sunday, Nov. 18, and released by 5 p.m. CST

The NAIA Network – the association’s official video-streaming home – will broadcast all 63 matches (including 48 pool-play matches) live at the 2018 NAIA Volleyball National Championship final site in Sioux City, Iowa. The video platform, powered by Stretch Internet, allows users access to live video, statistics and social interaction on a number of devices, including mobile. Single-day passes can be purchased for $9.95, while a pool play pass is $24.95 (Nov. 28 – Dec. 1) and a championship package is available at $39.95. You can also buy an All-Championship pass and watch every championship streamed on the NAIA Network in 2018. Buy your All-Championship Pass today.

Qualifier Highlights

  • The Great Plains Athletic Conference dominates the field with six qualifiers: Dordt (Iowa), Northwestern (Iowa), Morningside (Iowa), Hastings (Neb.), Midland (Neb.) and Jamestown (N.D).
  • The Cascade Collegiate Conference follows with four qualifiers of its own: College of Idaho, Southern Oregon, Easter Oregon and Corban (Ore.)
  • There are eight teams in the 2018 field that are making an appearance in the championship for the first time: IU Northwest (Ind.), Saint Francis (Ind.), Central Methodist (Mo.), McPherson (Kan.), Brescia (Ky.), Faulkner (Ala.), Aquinas (Mich.) and Providence (Mont.).
  • There are 10 teams in the 2018 field that are making their 10th or higher appearance at the national championship: Missouri Baptist, College of Idaho, Southern Oregon, Texas Wesleyan, Bellevue (Neb.), Westmont (Calif.), Hastings (Neb.), Dordt (Iowa), Columbia (Mo.) and Northwestern (Iowa)
  • Columbia holds the highest number of appearances overall in at the national tournament at 25.
  • 2017 national champion Lindsey Wilson returns to the championship as the Mid-South Conference tournament champion
  • Hastings, Park (Mo.), Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) and Columbia are the only champions in the 2018 field.
  • Columbia is the only team in the tournament field to have won more than one title as well as the only team in the field to win a title in consecutive years (1998-99-01-15).
  • Missouri, Indiana and Iowa yield the highest number of championship qualifiers with four each.
  • Undefeated Grand View (Iowa) is the team to watch as the only undefeated team that will compete in the national tournament as it recently snagged the No. 1-rank in the final regular-season poll.
  • Twenty-eight teams return to the championship after competing in the 2017 championship.
  • Milligan (Tenn.) returns to the championship field after a 21-year drought. The Buffs return to the national championship for the first time since 1996.

Qualifier Information

School Qualification Season Record Appearances Last Time Titles
Aquinas WHAC Regular Season Champion 32-7, 17-3 1st 0 0
Bellevue At-Large 23-11, 11-3 11th 2017 0
Brescia (Ky.) River States Tournament Runner-Up 23-17, 11-5 1st 0 0
Coastal Georgia The Sun Conference Tournament Champion 22-11, 11-5 4th 2016 0
Central Methodist Heart Tournament Runner-Up 30-6, 15-2 1st 0 0
College of Idaho At-Large 22-8, 16-4 10th 2017 0
Columbia AMC Tournament Champion 37-3, 10-2 25th 2017 4
Corban (Ore.) At-Large 20-11, 15-5 3rd 2017 0
Cornerstone (Mich.) WHAC Conference Tournament Champion 30-9, 15-5 4th 2017 0
Dordt GPAC Regular Season/Tournament Champion 27-2, 16-0 14th 2017 0
Eastern Oregon Cascade Tournament Champion 22-6, 17-3 5th 2017 0
Embry-Riddle Cal Pac Tournament Champion 28-6, 16-0 2nd 2017 0
Faulkner Southern States Tournament Champion 28-11, 14-2 1st 0 0
Grand View Heart Regular Season/Tournament Champion 32-0, 18-0 8th 2017 0
Haskell AII Tournament Champion 11-21, 2-3 2nd 2016 0
Hastings At-Large 19-6, 13-3 13th 2017 1
Indiana Northwest AII Tournament Runner-Up 27-11, 6-1 1st 0 0
IU Kokomo River States Regular Season/Tournament Champion 34-4, 16-0 4th 2017 0
Jamestown (N.D.) At-Large 21-8, 10-6 6th 2017 0
Lindsey Wilson Mid-South Tournament Champion 29-3, 13-0 8th 2017 1
Marian Crossroads Regular Season/Tournament Champion 28-5, 15-3 2nd 2017 0
McPherson KCAC Regular Season Champion 32-2, 12-0 1st 0 0
Midland At-Large 22-6, 13-3 6th 2017 0
Milligan (Tenn.) AAC Tournament Runner-Up 25-6, 16-3 2nd 1996 0
Missouri Baptist At-Large 31-4, 11-1 10th 2017 0
Morningside Host Bid 13-14, 7-9 7th 2017 0
Northwestern GPAC Tournament Runner-Up 24-7, 13-3 14th 2017 0
Oklahoma City Sooner Regular Season/Tournament Champion 30-3, 18-2 4th 2017 0
Ottawa (Kan.) KCAC Tournament Champion 26-10, 11-1 5th 2017 0
Park AMC Regular Season Champion 29-1, 12-0 6th 2017 1
Providence Frontier Tournament Champion 22-9, 8-4 1st 0 0
Reinhardt AAC Regular Season Champion 33-6, 19-0 2nd 2017 0
Rocky Mountain At-Large 28-4, 12-0 6th 2015 0
Saint Francis (Ind.) Crossroads Tournament Runner-Up 30-8, 15-3 1st 0 0
Saint Xavier (Ill.) CCAC Regular Season/Tournament Champion 27-9, 17-1 5th 2017 0
Southern Oregon Cascade Regular Season/Tournament Champion 25-3, 17-3 10th 2015 0
Texas Wesleyan Sooner Tournament Runner-Up 24-10, 17-3 10th 2017 0
The Master’s GSAC Champion 27-5, 16-2 3rd 2013 0
Trinity Christian CCAC Tournament Runner-Up 28-9, 15-2 5th 2017 0
Vanguard At-Large 26-8, 12-6 8th 2015 0
Viterbo North Star Tournament Champion 29-6, 13-1 6th 2017 0
Westmont At-Large 25-5, 15-3 12th 2017 0
Wiley Red River Tournament Champion 20-3, 9-3 2nd 2008 0
Xavier GCAC Tournament Champion 26-6, 14-0 8th 2017 0

Opening Round Match-Ups

St. Xavier (Ill.) at IU Kokomo (Ind.)

IU Northwest (Ind.) at Ottawa (Kan.)

Brescia (Ky.) at Central Methodist (Mo.)

Xavier (La.) at Corban (Ore.)

Texas Wesleyan at McPherson (Kan.)

Haskell (Kan.) at Jamestown (N.D.)

Faulkner (Ala.) at Marian (Ind.)

Bellevue (Neb.) at Trinity Christian (Ill.)

St. Francis (Ind.) at Aquinas (Mich.)

Coastal Georgia at Reinhardt (Ga.)

Milligan (Tenn.) at Cornerstone (Mich.)

Wiley (Texas) at Oklahoma City

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