LA MIRADA, Calif. --- The pool assignments and schedule for the 32nd Annual NAIA Volleyball National Championship have been released and Biola has a tough slate, slotted in Pool D with No. 4 Embry-Riddle (Fla.), No. 16 Spring Hill (Ala.) and No. 25 Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.) at the Tyson Events Center/Gateway Arena in Sioux City, Iowa, Nov. 29 - Dec. 3.
The tournament features three days of pool play action with bracket play following over the final two days. Each pool is comprised of six pools of four teams. The top two teams from each pool advance to bracket play with the top four teams receiving byes on Friday, advancing directly to the quarterfinals. The semifinals and finals take place on Saturday.
The Eagles enter the tournament as the No. 9 seed, wrapping up the regular season with a record of 23-12 and finished fourth in the GSAC with a record of 10-8. Biola--along with the pool's top seed Embry-Riddle--earned and Opening Round bye to the national championship final site. The Eagles are making their 11th trip to the NAIA National Tournament and its fifth-straight. Overall, Biola is 38-20 in tournament matches and have advanced at least to the quarterfinals in nine of its previous 10 appearances.
The top seed in Biola's pool is Embry-Riddle University from Florida, which is ranked No. 4 in the final NAIA Regular Season Poll. The Eagles finished the season with a 29-4 record including a perfect 12-0 record in the The Sun Conference. Embry-Riddle has won its last 10 matches including a sweep of SCAD Savannah in the final of The Sun Conference tournament.
This will be Embry-Riddle's second NAIA Tournament appearance. Last year, ERAU defeated Union (Ky.) in the Opening Round, and advanced out of pool play with a 2-1 pool record. However, the Eagles lost in four to Point Loma Nazarene University.
Spring Hill (39-1) is making its second trip to the NAIA Tournament as well, previously playing in the 2003 championship in the 11-year history of the program. The Badgers, who earned one of the NAIA's at-large berths, were the last of the NAIA unbeaten teams, winning 38-straight matches to open the season including handing then-No. 2 Lee University (Tenn.) a five-set loss in Mid-September. Despite going without a loss for so long, Spring Hill never rose higher in the national poll than No. 16 due to playing just one ranked team over the course of the season.
Spring Hill's Yiting Cao
leads the NAIA with 5.4 kills per set, but is the only member of the team with more than 2.2 kills per set and one of two averaging over 2.0. The Badgers earned a trip to the final site by virtue of beating Xavier University (La.) in three sets on Saturday.
The No. 4 seed in the pool is Freed-Hardeman University (28-8) from Tennessee, which earned an automatic berth to the tournament by virtue of winning its fourth TransSouth Conference championship. The Lions make their first trip to the NAIA Final Site in their third tournament appearance after losing opening round matches the last two seasons. Freed-Hardeman defeated Indiana East University in four on Saturday.
The Lions have won 15 of their last 17 matches overall including three matches in one day--two against Bethel College--to win the TransSouth Conference title.
All three of Biola's matches will be played at 3:15 p.m. (Central Time), taking on Spring Hill on Tuesday, Nov. 29, Freed-Hardeman on Wednesday, Nov. 30, and Embry-Riddle on Thursday, Dec. 1. Live stats and video will be available for all of Biola's matches with links made available on the Biola athletics website later this week.
CLICK HERE for the complete schedule and pool assignments on the NAIA website.
