The United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) has announced the teams that will compete for the 2016 Volleyball National Championship. As part of the USCAA Fall Championship Week event that combines the USCAA’s Soccer, Volleyball, and Cross Country National Championships in Virginia Beach, Virginia, the Volleyball National Championship will run November 10th-12th at the Virginia Beach Field House.
The Virginia Beach Field House is a 175,000 square foot facility with eight regulation sized volleyball courts. The facility has a fully stocked food court, arcade, indoor Fun Zone, and locker rooms. The USCAA will reserve two courts for tournament play and two additional courts for practice. The two-pool field will consist of five teams per pool, with four teams from each pool advancing to a single elimination bracket on day two and three of the tournament.
The top seed in this year’s tournament will be Florida National University after an impressive regular season that saw the team lose just one USCAA game. Defending National Champion, Florida College, earns the #2 seed in the field after splitting their regular season matchups with Florida National. The program will be looking for their fifth USCAA Volleyball National Championship in the last seven years. The third seed in this year’s field goes to Alfred State College, a semi-finalist from 2015. The Pioneers finished the 2016 season with a 23-4 record.
University of Maine-Fort Kent will return to the Volleyball National Championship field after making the program’s first appearance last season. The Bengals will be seeded #4 in 2016 after one of the best regular season’s in school history. Following University of Maine-Fort Kent, as the fifth seed in the 2016 field, will be a perennial contender, Rochester College. Another semifinalist from 2015, the Warriors are 13-1 against USCAA competition this season. Punching their ticket as the #6 seed in the field will be first-time participant Illinois Tech. The Scarlet Hawks lost only one USCAA match this season, a five-set result against Rochester.
Carlow University will return to the USCAA Volleyball National Championship as the #7 seed. They’ll be followed by last year’s runner-up, St. Mary of the Woods College. Completing the tournament field will be Penn State University Athletic Conference champion Penn State Fayette, who went the entire season without losing a set in conference, and Yankee Small College Conference champion NHTI.
You can follow all the action by visiting USCAA Volleyball National Championship Website. A live stream and statistics will be available for each games of the tournament. A standard stream is free of charge and a high-definition feed will be available at $6.95.
