The Roanoke College Cregger Center in Salem will be the site of the NCAA men’s Division III volleyball championships this weekend. The semifinals will be Friday and the championship match will be either on Sunday or Monday.
Friday’s semifinals will begin at 5 pm with a match between Juniata and Southern Virginia. A 7:30 pm match follows between Cal Lutheran and Springfield. The championship is scheduled for Sunday at 2 pm. However, if Southern Virginia wins on Friday the championship will be held on Monday at 7 pm as Southern Virginia cannot play on Sundays by school policy.
Cal Lutheran comes in as defending NCAA champion. Last season Cal Lutheran defeated Vassar in the championship match, three sets to none, to win the title in its first-ever tournament appearance. Springfield holds the record with five titles, winning all but two of the first seven tournaments.
Cal Lutheran comes into the weekend at 22-5 after defeating NYU in the quarterfinals, three sets to none. Springfield is 24-4, Southern Virginia is 33-1 and Juniata is 31-4. Juniata previously won the women’s NCAA Division III volleyball championship at Roanoke College in the fall.
The men’s tournament consists of 14 automatic qualifiers through conference play and five at-large bids. Randolph-Macon represented the Old Dominion Athletic Conference after defeating Roanoke College in the conference championship match. The Yellowjackets were eliminated in the NCAA tournament by Nichols College in the opening round, three sets to one, to finish the season 22-10.
