DIII Tournament Begins!

Greetings to the Volleyball World! There are 433 DIII women’s volleyball programs, spread all across the USA, and each school has some great volleyball being played there. DIII is by far the largest component of women’s college volleyball, larger than DI, DII, or NAIA.

The DIII Women’s National Volleyball Championship begins tomorrow, November 17, 2016, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in the Kolf Sports Center on the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh campus. A multipurpose facility, the Kolf Sports Center hosts the majority of Wisconsin-Oshkosh’s indoor athletic events, such as basketball, wrestling, gymnastics and track, as well as intramural sports, concerts, commencement, and classes in military science, physical education, and dance. The tournament will conclude with the championship match on Saturday, November 19, 2016. For more info, go to: (http://www.ncaa.com/news/volleyball-women/article/2016-11-07/womens-volleyball-diii-championship-field-announced).

In the Regional Tournaments, the teams below survived the fray.

• Northwestern-St. Paul – In the regional at the University of Northwestern-St. Paul, host Northwestern (#9) emerged victorious.
• Calvin – In the regional at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, host Calvin (#1) won the battle.
• Mary Washington – In the regional at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, host Mary Washington (#20) survived.
• Washington-St. Louis – In the regional at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Washington–St. Louis (#23) upset the host for the win.
• Tufts – In the regional at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, host Tufts (NR) was the victor.
• Eastern – In the regional at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, Eastern (#15) outlasted the host for the win.
• Emory – In the regional at the College of Brockport in Brockport, New York, Emory (#4) triumphed over the host for the victory.
• Southwestern – In the regional at the University of Texas-Dallas, Southwestern (#11) beat the host to advance.

And, not surprisingly, the host advanced to the regional tournament finals in all eight tournaments and won five of the eight matches.

Quarterfinal Match-ups, Thursday, November 17.

• QF1 – #1 Calvin Knights versus #4 Emory Eagles at 1:30 PM.
• QF2 – #9 Northwestern-St. Paul Eagles versus #15 Eastern Eagles at 4:00 PM.
• QF3 – #11 Southwestern Pirates versus unranked Tufts Jumbos at 6:30 PM.
• QF4 – #20 Mary Washington Eagles #23 Washington-St. Louis Bears at 9:00 PM.

Semifinal Matchups, Friday, November 18.

• SF1 – Winner of QF1 versus Winner of QF2 at 6:00 PM.
• SF2 – Winner of QF3 versus Winner of QF4 at 8:30 PM.

Championship Match, Saturday, November 19.

• Winner of SF1 versus Winner of SF2 at 8:00 PM.

What is NCAA Division III, or DIII? Straight from the NCAA website we read the following explanation: “Division III institutions have to sponsor at least five sports for men and five for women, with two team sports for each gender, and each playing season represented by each gender. There are minimum contest and participant minimums for each sport. Division III athletics features student-athletes who receive no financial aid related to their athletic ability and athletic departments are staffed and funded like any other department in the university. Division III athletics departments place special importance on the impact of athletics on the participants rather than on the spectators. The student-athlete’s experience is of paramount concern. Division III athletics encourages participation by maximizing the number and variety of athletics opportunities available to students, placing primary emphasis on regional in-season and conference competition.” http://www.ncaa.org/about/who-we-are/membership/divisional-differences-and-history-multidivision-classification

LET’S GROW VOLLEYBALL!