CIU, Bryan Ready for NAIA Opening Round

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – [Watch Video Announcement | Full Opening Round Schedule Coming Nov. 16] The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) has announced the qualifying teams and NAIA Championship Opening Round matchups for the 2023 NAIA Women's Volleyball Championship presented by Marriott South Sioux City Riverfront and Riverside Technologies Inc. The 48-team event will begin with 24 NAIA Championship Opening Round matches at campus locations on Saturday, November 18.

After NAIA Championship Opening Rounds, the action at the final site inside the Tyson Events Center in Sioux City, Iowa, starts with three days of pool play from November 29 – December 1. The top team of each pool will advance to the elimination bracket, starting with the quarterfinals, on Saturday, December 2. The semifinals will be played on Monday, December 4, and the national champion will be crowned Tuesday, December 5, with the first serve set for 7 p.m. CST on ESPN3.

Columbia International and Bryan will represent the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) at nationals. CIU garnered an automatic berth as the regular-season and tournament champion, while Bryan received its berth as the tournament runner-up.

This year's championship field includes 34 automatic qualifiers and 14 at-large selections. Automatic berths were given to teams that either won their respective conference tournament title, the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament, regular-season championship, or finished runner-up at the conference tournament as determined by each conference qualification plan. The at-large bids were determined by the NAIA Women's Volleyball Selection Committee. The selection committee consists of coaches and administrators from around the country. 

All NAIA Championship Opening Round matches will be video streamed by the host.

The NAIA Network – the association's official video-streaming home – will broadcast all matches, excluding the semifinal and championship matches, live at the 2023 NAIA Volleyball Championship final site in Sioux City, Iowa. The video platform, powered by Presto Sports, 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 (November 29 – December 1), and a championship package, which includes pool play and quarterfinal matches. The semifinals on December 4 and the championship on December 5 will be streamed on ESPN3. The links will be found on the schedule at a closer date.

The 24-team championship final site pool play matchups will be announced on Sunday, November 19, on NAIA.org by 5 p.m.

Qualifier Highlights

• This is the fourth consecutive year that all qualifying teams must participate in the opening round before advancing to the final site.
• Columbia (Mo.) entered the championship field with the highest number of appearances at 29 and was the first team to hit 100 tournament wins.
• Following Columbia (Mo.), 15 teams have recorded ten or more appearances in the championship field.
• The last seven of nine women's volleyball champions return to the championship field this year.
• Five teams in the championship field have won at least one title: Columbia (Mo.), Missouri Baptist, Park (Mo.), Jamestown (N.D.), and Marian (Ind.).
• Thirty-three of the 48 qualifying teams also qualified for the 2022 championship.
• Seven teams in the field are qualifying for the first time: Benedictine (Kan.), Judson (Ill.), Montana Western, Oklahoma Wesleyan, Saint Katherine (Calif.), Talladega (Ala.) and Valley City State (N.D.).
• Indiana Wesleyan is the only team in the field to boast an unblemished record at 32-0.
• Loyola (La.) returns to the championship field after a 21-year drought.
• The Great Plains Athletic Conference qualified the highest number of teams, with six teams making the field. The Cascade Collegiate Conference and the Crossroads League followed with four teams appearing in the field.

Opening Round Matchups

2023 Qualifiers