KANSAS CITY, Mo. – (Watch Selection Show) The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics has officially announced the teams and Opening Round pairings for the 2016 NAIA Volleyball National Championship. The 44-team event will get underway with 12 National Championship Opening Round matches at campus locations on Nov. 19.
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. 29 – 1. The top two teams in each pool will advance to the elimination bracket on Dec. 2, and the national champion will be crowned Dec. 3 the with first-serve set for 7 p.m. CST on ESPN3.
This year’s field includes 34 automatic qualifiers, 9 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 Tachikara-NAIA Volleyball Coaches’ Top 25 Poll announced Monday. That Top 25 Poll can be viewed here. Final site pools will be determined on Sunday, Nov. 20, 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 2016 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. 29 – Dec. 2) and an all-championship package is available at $39.95. For more information and the pre-register, click here.
Qualifier Highlights
• Twenty-four programs are back from the 2015 national championship, including last season’s national champion, Columbia (Mo.).
• Undefeated Westmont (Calif.) is the team to watch this postseason as the Warriors come into the national championship as the No. 1 ranked team at 31-0. This is Westmont’s 10th appearance.
• Morningside (Iowa) earned the host berth for the 2016 National Championship. The Mustangs enter competition with a 19-13 overall record and will be making their fifth appearance.
• Other teams to watch include defending national champion Columbia, who started out the season slow but is on an 11-game winning-streak and was crowned the American Midwest Conference Tournament champions in a 3-0 win over regular-season champion, Park (Mo.). Hastings (Neb.) is also on a roll late in the season, winning both the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) regular-season and tournament championships. They are led by the top hitter in the nation in Logan Drueppel (.433). Drueppel also leads the NAIA in blocks per set (1.7).
• Nine 2016 qualifiers have made the championship 10-or-more times during the event’s existence, including: Biola (Calif.) (16), Columbia (23), Doane (Neb.) (11), Dordt (Iowa) (12), Georgetown (Ky.) (19), Hastings (11), Madonna (Mich.) (16), St. Francis (Ill.) (10) and Westmont (10).
• Only two programs in the field have won a national championship before: Columbia (1998, 1999, 2001, 2015) and Park (2014).
• The GPAC conference brings the most qualifiers this year with five institutions including: Doane, Dordt, Hastings, Midland (Neb.) and Morningside. The GPAC has yet to have a member school win the national championship.
• Perennial contender and defending national champion Columbia is the active leader in both championship appearances at 23 and playoff wins with an 87-43 record.
• Columbia has the most kills in a national tournament with 588. They also hold the record for most total attempts with 1,884 in the 2000 national championship.
• Montana Tech snapped a 26-year drought of missing out on the national championship. The Diggers earned an at-large bid to qualify this season. Montana Tech finished as runner-up in the Frontier Conference tournament, losing to Carroll (Mont.), 3-2.
• Four teams have qualified for the first time in program history – Haskell (Kan.), Corban (Ore.), IU South Bend (Ind.) and Tabor (Kan.).
2016 NAIA Volleyball National Championship Qualifiers
| Team |
Qualification |
Season Record |
Appearances |
Last Time |
Record |
Titles |
| Bellevue (Neb.) |
At-Large 7 |
30-10 |
9th |
2013 |
10-17 |
0 |
| Biola (Calif.) |
At-Large 6 |
23-9 |
16th |
2015 |
59-25 |
0 |
| Carroll (Mont.) |
Frontier Conference - Tournament Champion |
23-6 |
4th |
2012 |
5-5 |
0 |
| Columbia (Mo.) |
American Midwest Conference - Tournament Champion |
26-11 |
23rd |
2015 |
87-43 |
4 |
| Coastal Georgia |
Southern States Athletic Conference - Tournament Champion |
28-8 |
3rd |
2015 |
2-6 |
0 |
| Corban (Ore.) |
Cascade Collegiate Conference - Highest Tournament Finisher |
22-6 |
1st |
N/A |
0-0 |
0 |
| Cornerstone (Mich.) |
Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference - Highest Tournament Finisher |
32-8 |
2nd |
2004 |
1-3 |
0 |
| Doane (Mich.) |
At-Large 4 |
23-8 |
11th |
2012 |
13-25 |
0 |
| Dordt (Iowa) |
At-Large 1 |
22-7 |
12th |
2015 |
25-22 |
0 |
| Eastern Oregon |
Cascade Collegiate Conference - Regular Season Champion |
28-2 |
2nd |
2015 |
0-4 |
0 |
| Georgetown (Ky.) |
At-Large 2 |
29-7 |
19th |
2015 |
40-45 |
0 |
| Grand View (Iowa) |
Heart of America Athletic Conference - Regular Season Champion |
29-6 |
5th |
2014 |
6-8 |
0 |
| Haskell (Kan.) |
Association of Independent Institutions - Highest Tournament Finisher |
13-14 |
1st |
N/A |
0-0 |
0 |
| Hastings (Neb.) |
Great Plains Athletic Conference - Regular Season Champion |
26-3 |
11th |
2015 |
19-25 |
0 |
| IU South Bend (Ind.) |
Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference - Tournament Runner-Up |
18-21 |
1st |
N/A |
0-0 |
0 |
| Indiana Wesleyan |
Crossroads League - Regular Season Champion |
34-2 |
6th |
2014 |
7-9 |
0 |
| IU Kokomo (Ind.) |
River States Conference - Tournament Champion |
26-7 |
2nd |
2015 |
0-1 |
0 |
| Jamestown (N.D.) |
At-Large 5 |
25-12 |
4th |
2014 |
1-5 |
0 |
| La Sierra (Calif.) |
California Pacific Athletic Conference - Tournament Champion |
15-12 |
3rd |
2015 |
0-2 |
0 |
| Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) |
Mid-South Conference - Tournament Champion |
31-1 |
7th |
2015 |
9-9 |
0 |
| Lourdes (Ohio) |
Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference - Tournament Champion |
26-5 |
3rd |
2015 |
2-3 |
0 |
| Madonna (Mich.) |
At-Large 9 |
30-7 |
16th |
2015 |
35-31 |
0 |
| MidAmerica Nazarene |
Heart of America Athletic Conference - Highest Tournament Finisher |
27-7 |
5th |
2015 |
11-7 |
0 |
| Midland (Neb.) |
Great Plains Athletic Conference - Highest Tournament Finisher |
26-3 |
4th |
2015 |
7-6 |
0 |
| Missouri Baptist |
At-Large 3 |
28-8 |
8th |
2015 |
16-13 |
0 |
| Mobile (Ala.) |
Southern States Athletic Conference - Regular Season Champion |
30-8 |
5th |
2013 |
5-8 |
0 |
| Montana Tech |
At-Large 8 |
22-9 |
3rd |
1988 |
2-5 |
0 |
| Morningside (Iowa) |
Host |
19-13 |
5th |
2012 |
3-9 |
0 |
| Mount Vernon Nazarene (Ohio) |
Crossroads Leauge - Highest Tournament Finisher |
31-5 |
3rd |
2015 |
1-6 |
0 |
| Oklahoma City |
Sooner Athletic Conference - Tournament Champion |
30-3 |
2nd |
2010 |
1-3 |
0 |
| Ottawa (Kan.) |
Kansas Collegiate Athletic - Regular Season Champion |
31-7 |
4th |
2015 |
1-5 |
0 |
| Our Lady of the Lake (Texas) |
Red River Athletic Conference - Tournament Champion |
25-6 |
2nd |
2015 |
0-1 |
0 |
| Ozarks (Mo.) |
Association of Independent Institutions - Tournament Champion |
28-13 |
4th |
2014 |
1-4 |
0 |
| Park (Mo.) |
American Midwest Conference - Regular Season Champion |
32-2 |
4th |
2015 |
8-5 |
1 |
| Point Park (Pa.) |
River States Conference - Regular Season Champion |
20-14 |
4th |
2015 |
0-3 |
0 |
| St. Andrews (N.C.) |
Appalachian Athletic Conference - Highest Tournament Finisher |
22-14 |
2nd |
1993 |
0-4 |
0 |
| St. Francis (Ill.) |
Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference - Tournament Champion |
29-11 |
10th |
2012 |
22-23 |
0 |
| Tabor (Kan.) |
Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference - Highest Tournament Finisher |
25-9 |
1st |
N/A |
0-0 |
0 |
| Union (Ky.) |
Appalachian Athletic Conference - Regular Season Champion |
32-9 |
5th |
2015 |
0-4 |
0 |
| Viterbo (Wis.) |
North Star Athletic Association - Tournament Champion |
39-2 |
4th |
2015 |
13-4 |
0 |
| Wayland Baptist (Texas) |
Sooner Athletic Conference - Highest Tournament Finisher |
24-15 |
4th |
2015 |
6-3 |
0 |
| Webber International (Fla.) |
The Sun Conference - Tournament Champion |
28-2 |
2nd |
2008 |
0-1 |
0 |
| Westmont (Calif.) |
Golden State Athletic Conference - Regular Season Champion |
31-0 |
10th |
2013 |
21-20 |
0 |
| Xavier (La.) |
Gulf Coast Athletic Conference |
16-16 |
6th |
2015 |
0-5 |
0 |
Opening Round Schedule
Saturday, Nov. 19 | Campus Sites
Match 1 – Cornerstone (Mich.) at Union (Ky.)
Match 2 – La Sierra (Calif.) at Biola (Calif.)
Match 3 – Haskell (Kan.) at Bellevue (Neb.)
Match 4 – Mount Vernon Nazarene (Ohio) at Corban (Ore.)
Match 5 – IU South Bend (Ind.) at Montana Tech
Match 6 – Point Park (Pa.) at Madonna (Mich.)
Match 7 – Webber International (Fla.) at Mobile (Ala.)
Match 8 – IU Kokomo (Ind.) at Ottawa (Kan.)
Match 9 – St. Francis (Ill.) at Xavier (La.)
Match 10 – Ozarks (Mo.) at Our Lady of the Lake (Texas)
Match 11 – Tabor (Kan.) at Wayland Baptist (Texas)
Match 12 – St. Andrews (N.C.) at Coastal Georgia