CHULA VISTA, Calif. – After sitting atop the NAIA Top 10 poll for the entirety of the regular season, the No. 1-ranked Corban Beach Volleyball team is prepared to show the rest of the nation why they're the defending National Champions and unanimous top vote receiver around the country. The Navy and Gold are preparing to represent the Cascade Collegiate Conference at the 2023 Cal Pac Conference Beach Volleyball Tournament as the top overall seed that will take place from April 6th to 8th at the Elite Athlete Training Center in sunny Chula Vista, California.
To see the complete bracket for the 2023 Cal Pac Beach Volleyball Tournament, click HERE.
"We're very much looking forward to competing in the Cal Pac/Unaffiliated Tournament for a chance at one of few automatic bids to the NAIA National Invitational," Warriors' Head Coach Diana Villalpando shared with enthusiasm.
"We know we will be facing new opponents and tough challenges. We have a little more time to prepare, but at this point the girls have to trust in our process and training to allow themselves to go out and play aggressively and without hesitation. As lot of coaches say, we got here and now it's time to leave it all out on the court, and in our case, the sand."
The Warriors (16-3) finished the regular season with an undisputed dominant handling of their opponents, posting a perfect 12-0 record against NAIA schools and going 4-3 against NCAA opponents that ranged from Division III all the way up to Division I. As the reigning Pacific Northwest Champions of the NAIA three years running now, the Navy and Gold posted 12 sweeping victories over their challengers from Bushnell University, Southern Oregon University, and Northwest University in every head-to-head dual spread out over the season.
Some major upsets this season include back-to-back victories over DI University of Portland and a come-from-behind win against DI University of Utah at the Nick & Dee Herman Invitational this past February. As a program overall, the Warriors have secured an astonishing 77-18 pair record through 19 matches, resulting in a 0.811-win percentage per pair and 0.842-win percentage in head-to-head duals.
Paving the road to victory thus far this season begins at the top of the Corban lineup with the top pair on the nation's top roster, as senior Avari Ridgway and sophomore Megan Dennis have made quick work of the foes they've faced, posting a 17-2 overall record with their only two pair losses coming to DI schools of the University of Louisiana Monroe and University of Oregon.
The second through fourth pairs have been experimented with throughout the season due to some key injuries and results, yet they have only suffered a combined seven losses through 43 total matchups. The dynamic sister pairing from the 2022 season made a midseason return to the Corban lineup, as juniors Kianna and Cameron Keeling have put together a 10-2 record with an upset win over the Pilots.
Senior Ally Schmidt and sophomore Jessica McMillian have been the only other pair to solidify themselves in the starting lineup all season alongside Ridgway and Dennis, as they sit at 14-5 overall in starts at both the third and fourth pair of the lineups that Villalpando has submitted.
In an incredible showing for the lone pair that holds an undefeated record with a large sample size in the starting lineup, senior Kealani Ontai and sophomore Maya Blake are now 12-0 following two more sweeps this past weekend and are one of two pairs to have not taken a single pair loss this season.
The fifth pair has been on a rotating basis for Coach Villalpando all season long in an attempt to cap off their strongest roster in program history, with two pairs in particular seeing a majority of the workload as of late. Senior Jolinn Daviscourt and redshirt sophomore Kalisi Latu are a combined 7-0 in the final pair for Corban, while senior Tyra Ching and freshman Emmi Marks are now 4-1 in their limited opportunities.
The first opponent of the upcoming tournament for the Warriors will be the No. 4-seed from the Cal Pac, the University of Benedictine at Mesa Redhawks (0-8). In a rebuilding year for the Redhawks, they've struggled to find consistency in an incredibly robust conference that has handed them eight-straight losses on the year, winning only four pairs all season long and being swept in seven of those eight losses.
Park University Gilbert (4-8) has seen some success over the course of the season at both the NAIA and junior college levels, securing a pair of sweeps against Benedictine and two crucial victories over RV William Carey University at the beginning of the year. While they've struggled to find that upset win within the conference (going 0-4 against the top two teams from the Cal Pac), they are more than capable of causing some tension in the conference tournament if they can rediscover the successes that they once had from earlier this season.
The remaining squads outside of Bushnell and Southern Oregon that Corban may see in Chula Vista include the No. 7-ranked Firebirds of the University of Saint Katherine (7-5) and the No. 2-ranked Warriors of Westcliff University (12-3). Starting with the tournament host Firebirds who have secured major Top 10 wins over NAIA schools outside of the Cal Pac, the lone opponent that has found their weakness rests in the form of the Cal Pac Champion Warriors. Saint Katherine has flirted with the Top 10 throughout the season and currently ranks seventh overall in the NAIA, posing as the biggest Cinderella possibility to knock off either Warrior squad that currently dominate the Cal Pac and Pacific Northwest.
Following a stunning flip near the top of the NAIA Top 10 poll this past Wednesday by a single vote, Westcliff proved exactly why they deserved the No. 2-overall ranking that same morning with a convincing sweep of No. 3-ranked Vanguard University, thus proving what many expect will be one of the two teams in the Cal Pac Tournament Championship game on April 8th.
The winner of the Cal Pac Tournament will earn an automatic bid to the NAIA National Invitational, the same tournament that Corban came out on top of last season and were crowned the very first NAIA National Champions in Beach Volleyball. The national invite will take place from April 20th to 22nd in Panama City, Florida, with the next National Champion being crowned on the final day of play.
Corban enters the Cal Pac Tourney as the No. 1 overall seed and will look to capitalize as the top dogs in their opening pool play schedule on April 6th. They'll battle Benedictine at 9am PDT, followed by Park-Gilbert later that evening at 5pm. After pool play is finalized, the seeds will be adjusted according to results on the courts before bracket play will begin the following morning. Stay tuned for future updates on the Warriors' next opponent once the bracket has been finalized on the evening of April 6th.
Follow Corban Athletics:
Facebook l Twitter l Instagram l Snapchat l YouTube l Email
Download our App: iOS (iPhone/iPad) l Android
