CIU, Reinhardt to Open NAIA Tournament Play on the Road

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – (Watch Video Announcement) The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) has announced the qualifying teams and opening round matchups for the 2024 NAIA Women's Volleyball Championship presented by Marriott South Sioux City Riverfront and Explore Siouxland. The 48-team event will begin with 24 championship opening round matches at campus locations on Saturday, November 23.

After opening rounds, the action at the final site will take place inside the Tyson Events Center in Sioux City, Iowa, and will start with three days of pool play from December 4-6. At the conclusion of pool play, the top team in each three-team pool will advance to the elimination bracket, starting with the quarterfinals, on Saturday, December 7. The semifinals will be played on Monday, December 9 and the national champion will be crowned Tuesday, December 10.

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.

Columbia International and Reinhardt represent the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) in the national tournament, and both teams will begin their journeys on the road. Columbia International will play at Marian (Ind.), while Reinhardt will travel to Southern Oregon.

All championship opening round matches will be video streamed by the host.

The 2024 NAIA Women's Volleyball National Championship final site in Sioux City, Iowa will be broadcast FREE on the NAIA Channel of the Urban Edge Network and the newly redesigned NAIA Network. For more information and to pre-register, click HERE.

The final site pools will be determined on Sunday, November 24, and released by 1 p.m. CST. 

Qualifier Highlights

• All qualifying teams will participate in the opening round before advancing to the final site.
• Columbia (Mo.) holds the all-time appearances record with 30 total appearances. The Cougars also have the most wins at the tournament with 103 wins. CC also boasts the highest number of titles in this year's tournament field, with four.
• Northwestern (Iowa) is the only team with 20 appearances.
• Fourteen teams have 10-19 appearances in the tournament: Bellevue (Neb.), Missouri Baptist, Texas Wesleyan, College of Idaho, Southern Oregon, Indiana Wesleyan, Jamestown (N.D.), Viterbo (Wis.), Lindsey Wilson (Ky.), Eastern Oregon, IU Kokomo (Ind.), Midland (Neb.), Morningside (Iowa) and Mobile (Ala.).
• There are no first-year teams that qualified for the 2024 tournament field.
• There are five other teams that have won at least one title besides Columbia (Mo.): Missouri Baptist, Indiana Wesleyan, Jamestown (N.D.), Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) and Marian (Ind.).
• There are 33 teams that also qualified for the 2023 championship.
• There are two teams that remain undefeated in the tournament field: Northwestern (Iowa) and St. Thomas (Fla.).
• Grace (Ind.) closed a 23-year gap as they re-entered the tournament field for the first time since 2001.
• The Cascade Collegiate Athletic Conference leads the way with six qualifiers from the conference.

Opening Round Matchups

 *sort alphabetically by visitor

QUALIFIERS LIST