Kansas City, MO — The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics has officially announced the teams and Opening Round pairings for the 2019 NAIA Volleyball National Championship. The 44-team event will get underway with 12 National Championship Opening Round matches at campus locations on Nov. 23.
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 Dec. 3-5. The top two teams in each pool will advance to the elimination bracket on Dec. 6, and the national champion will be crowned Dec. 7 with first serve set for 7 p.m. CST on ESPN3.
This year’s field includes 36 automatic qualifiers, 7 at-large selections and one host berth (Morningside). The automatic berths are determined by regular-season champions or runner-ups, 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. 24, and released by 5 p.m. CST
The Great Plains Athletic Conference dominates the field with five qualifying teams with Concordia (Neb.), Jamestown (N.D.), Morningside (Iowa), Northwestern (Iowa) and Saint Mary (Neb.).
