The Malone University volleyball team, led by 12th year head coach
Tanya Hockman, will travel to Sioux City, Iowa next week to make the program's first-ever appearance in the NAIA National Tournament. The Pioneers earned a spot in the event by knocking off NAIA No. 13 Indiana Tech on the road this past Saturday in one of the 12 NAIA National Championship Opening Round contests that were held on NAIA campuses across the country. Malone, along with the 11 other opening-round winners, will join the host institution, Briar Cliff (IA) University, and 11 other schools who received opening-round byes to complete the 24-team national tournament field.
The event will kick off with pool play matches November 30th through December 2nd as the 24 teams are divided into six pools. Following the completion of round-robin pool play, the top two teams from each of the four-team pools (12 total teams) will advance to the single-elimination tournament bracket that begins on December 3rd. The NAIA National Championship Match will take place Saturday, December 4th at 8:00 p.m. CST.
Malone, 33-7 overall, was placed in Pool D when the assignments were announced by the NAIA on Sunday evening. The Pioneers are joined in the group by NAIA No. 4
Northwestern (IA) College, NAIA No. 9
Lewis-Clark State (ID) College, and NAIA No. 17
Point Loma Nazarene (CA) University.
Malone will open play on Tuesday, November 30th with an 8:00 p.m. CST (9:00 p.m. EST) contest against Northwestern. The Red Raiders, 35-0 overall, are making their 10th NAIA National Championship appearance and earned an opening-round bye after winning the Great Plains Athletic Conference Tournament. Northwestern is located less than 50 miles away from Sioux City in Orange City, Iowa.
The Pioneers will face Lewis-Clark State in their second pool-play match on Wednesday, December 1st at 5:45 p.m. CST (6:45 EST). The Warriors, 28-1 overall, secured a NAIA National Championship spot by winning the Frontier Conference Tournament and, like Northwestern, also received an opening-round bye. Lewis-Clark State, located in Lewiston, Idaho, is making its 11th NAIA National Championship appearance.
Malone will then wrap up pool play on Thursday, December 2nd with a 5:45 p.m. CST (6:45 EST) match against Point Loma Nazarene. The Sea Lions, 18-12 overall and members of the tough Golden State Athletic Conference, earned one of nine NAIA National Championship at-large bids. Point Loma Nazarene's 13th NAIA National Championship appearance began with a three-set win over Dillard (LA) University in an opening-round match that was played at the Sea Lions' home court in San Diego, California.
NeuLion, the NAIA's Digital Media Partner, will provide streaming video of all NAIA National Tournament matches played on December 3-4. Unfortunately, no video will be available during pool play.
Click here for a complete breakdown of the pool-play matches.
Click here for ticket information
Click here for the NAIA Volleyball National Tournament website.
