2009 NAIA Volleyball National Championship Qualifiers Announced

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) has officially released the Volleyball National Championship qualifiers for the 30th annual event. The tournament will feature 36 teams with 12 Opening Round matches played at on-campus sites that will take place on Nov. 21. The winners of the National Championship Opening Round matches, as well as host school Morningside (Iowa), will advance to the Tyson Events Center/Gateway Arena in Sioux City, Iowa, location of the NAIA National Championship final site presented by Siouxland Sports Medicine Foundation Dec. 1 - 5.

The pairings for the opening round matches will be released on Sunday at 6 p.m. (CST). Final site pool assignments and schedule will be announced on Nov. 22 by 6 p.m. (CST).

This year's 36 teams include 27 automatic qualifiers and eight at-large berths.

The 27 automatic qualifiers include: Black Hills State (S.D.), College of Idaho, College of the Ozarks (Mo.), Columbia (Mo.), Doane (Neb.), Evangel (Mo.), Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.), Fresno Pacific (Calif.), Friends (Kan.), Georgetown (Ky.), Indiana East, Indiana Tech, Lee (Tenn.), Lewis-Clark State (Idaho), Lubbock Christian (Texas), Menlo (Calif.), Mobile (Ala.), Northwestern (Iowa), Olivet Nazarene (Ill.), Saint Ambrose (Iowa), Savannah College of Art & Design (Ga.), Shawnee State (Ohio), St. Thomas (Texas), Taylor (Ind.), Texas at Brownsville, Union (Ky.), Walsh (Ohio).

Azusa Pacific (Calif.), Bellevue (Neb.), Biola (Calif.), California Baptist, Concordia (Calif.), Point Loma Nazarene (Calif.), Southern Oregon and Vanguard (Calif.) received at-large berths into the tournament.

Evangel, Freed-Hardeman and Indiana East will be making their first trip to the National Championship. Two-time defending national champion Fresno Pacific leads the qualifying field with 19 appearances.

Three other qualifying teams in addition to Fresno Pacific have previously earned a national title: Azusa Pacific, California Baptist and Columbia.

JumpTV Inc. is the exclusive provider of live video and audio-streaming at the NAIA National Championship. JumpTV will stream the 2009 NAIA Men's and Women's Soccer and Volleyball National Championships. These events can be viewed by going to watchnaia.com or by clicking here.

For more information on the National Championship Opening Round, click here.
For more information on the National Championship, click here.
For complete conference tournament breakdown, click here.

^As reported on conference websites

source: NAIA Sports Information