Vikings Gear Up for the 4th Annual NAIA Men’s Volleyball National Championship

Men’s Volleyball | Sun, Apr. 9, 2023 at 6:40 PM

Kansas City, MO – (Pool Play Schedule | Bracket) The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) has officially announced the qualifiers for the 2023 Men’s Volleyball National Championship. The 12-team field will begin play on April 11 at the final site in West Des Moines, Iowa at the MidAmerican Energy Company RecPlex. 

This will be the fourth year the Vikings have hosted the championship. There are 12 teams that advanced to the final site. Eight teams automatically qualified for the tournament through their conference, three teams were selected as at-large qualifiers by a selection committee made up of administrators and coaches from across the country and the final team qualified with a host berth.

There are four teams that have qualified for every championship since the sport moved to championship status in 2019: Benedictine Mesa (Ariz.), Grand View (Iowa), Park (Mo.) and Saint Xavier (Ill.). Two teams in the field have won a title: Benedictine Mesa (1) and Grand View (2). Nine teams that qualified in the 2023 field were also qualifiers in the 2022 championship: Benedictine Mesa (Ariz.), Georgetown (Ky.), Grand View, Indiana Tech, Jamestown (N.D.), OUAZ (Ariz.), Park, Saint Xavier, Vanguard (Calif.) There are three new teams to the championship field that are qualifying for the first time: Menlo (Calif.), The Master’s (Calif.) and Webber (Fla.)-€‹ Four of the 12 qualifying teams (Benedictine Mesa (Ariz.), Grand View (Iowa), The Master’s (Calif.), and Vanguard (Calif.)) have been ranked No. 1 at some point during the 2023 season.

The 2023 season has been adversity full for the Vikings but nonetheless have earned themselves a host berth. The Vikings opened their season without a leader and 2022 tournament stand-out Leonardo Annichini (JR/Verona, Italy) due to injury. Viking’s OPP Daniel Galili (SO/Shomrat, Israel) also missed a majority of the season due to a lingering injury early on. 

The Vikings who have earned a spot in Pool B will face off with two familiar foes, No. 2 seed Vanguard of California, and 10th seeded Jamestown University. The Vikings competed against Vanguard just once this season in California where they fell in four close sets at their place. The Vikings wouldn’t see the Jimmies this season but competed against them twice last year where they won both contests, one being in the National Tournament.

Tournament action…