PANAMA CITY, Fla. – Roughly 365 days ago, the Corban University Beach Volleyball team was crowned as the inaugural NAIA National Champions at the NAIA National Invitational. Starting tomorrow morning, they look to defend their crowns as the reigning champions among some of the best programs the NAIA has to offer.
To see the NAIA's release on the national qualifiers, click HERE.
To see the complete bracket for the 2023 NAIA Beach Volleyball National Invitational, click HERE.
The Warriors received an At-Large berth following a dominant 2023 regular season that saw them hold the No. 1 national ranking for all but a single week and will enter the national tourney as one of two teams that earned their invite based purely on match results and national resume. With a revamped starting lineup looking to shock their opponents, the Warriors will once again entire the invitational as steady underdogs with upset potential at every pair.
Just like last year, the NAIA National Invitational will begin with a round of pool play for all six teams invited, where everyone will then be reranked into bracket play depending on the results of those pool play matches. The Navy and Gold will serve as the No. 2-overall seed in the tournament and be placed in Pool Play Group B among the No. 3-ranked Lions of Vanguard University (17-4) and No. 6-ranked Warriors of Webber International University (20-5).
The Corban Beach Volleyball program is all too familiar with the Lions they stunned in the national championship match last spring, thus setting up the most highly anticipated pool play match of the day tomorrow at 3pm ET/12pm PDT. However, before the inaugural championship rematch can commence, the battle of the two Warrior squads from Pool Play Group B will commence at 11am ET/8am PDT.
The Warriors (20-4) are recently coming off their first loss to an NAIA team this season, falling to the now No. 1-ranked Westcliff University Warriors (18-5) in the Cal Pac Conference Tournament Championship match by a slim 3-2 decision that came down to the final pairs left on the courts. Westcliff will serve as No. 1-overall seed in the NAIA National Invitational this week, yet Coach Villalpando and her squad full of returners look to once again upend the same team they went on to beat in the national semifinal just one season ago on their way to the first NAIA Red Banner in Corban Athletics history.
Alongside Westcliff in Pool Play Group A will be the Pirates of No. 5-ranked Park University Missouri (16-1) and the only other At-Large team in the tournament alongside Corban, the Spirit of No. 4-ranked Ottawa University Arizona (16-8), also known as OUAZ. Both the Pirates and Spirit will look to cause chaos in pool play with the top national seed before bracket play commences on April 21st.
New seeding will be announced shortly after the conclusion of the final pool play match on April 20th, with the Warriors' First and Second Round opponents still yet to be determined.
Due to the NAIA not having an official livestream partner for Beach Volleyball, nor the access to live stats at the venue, the match results throughout the tourney will solely be made available shortly after on the NAIA schedule, which can be found HERE. Additionally, the Corban Sports Information department will be making every effort to get results on the Corban Athletics social media pages and Beach Volleyball Schedule as soon as possible.
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