SIOUX CITY, Iowa – Ten-consecutive winning seasons for the No. 5-ranked Corban University Women's Volleyball team have concluded with the Warriors competing for a national championship banner at the NAIA National Tournament Final Site, with this year's festivities set to kick off tomorrow morning with their first of two pool play matchups in northwestern Iowa. Representing one of the top five overall seeds in the field, the Navy and Gold enter as one of the strong favorites to earn their first Red Banner in program history as their starting lineup and key rotational players all have plenty of experience competing within the confines of the Tyson Events Center, with a return to the national championship match well within reach for the senior student-athletes (opposite hitter Makayla Roginski & setter Abby Guindy) who competed in said contest during their freshman seasons of competition in the fall of 2022.
"We're excited and blessed to be among the top twenty-four teams in the national at the final site of the NAIA National Championships," expressed Warriors' head coach Kim McLain earlier today. "This group has embraced the grind all season, and their unity continues to set them apart. We're ready for the challenge and grateful for the opportunities that lie ahead!"
The NAIA National Tournament Final Site begins on Wednesday, December 3rd with eight pool play groupings of three teams that make up the overall field of twenty-four programs. The top eight overall seeds represent the No. 1-seeds in each pool and benefit from a rest day between pool play matchups, while the No. 2 and No. 3-seeds must play on back-to-back days, either Wednesday-Thursday or Thursday-Friday.
The teams that emerge 2-0 from their pool play contests (or win their pool play tiebreaker) move to single game elimination bracket play, which begins on Saturday, December 6th with the national quarterfinals. Following an off day on Sunday, the national semifinals will be played out on Monday, December 8th, with the national championship match taking place on Tuesday, December 9th. All bracket play matchups/start times are to be determined based on pool play results.
The Warriors (25-5) enter the final site field as one of five Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) programs in attendance and one of two representing the top seeds among the eight pools. The CCC held strong in Opening Round contests to send the most teams in conference history to the final site, with No. 1-ranked Eastern Oregon University, the No. 5-ranked Warriors, No. 19-ranked Bushnell University, and No. 16-ranked College of Idaho all winning on their home courts in dominant three-set sweeps. Meanwhile, No. 18-ranked Lewis-Clark State College traveled to Upland, Indiana and handed RV Taylor University a four-set loss to clinch their first trip to Sioux City since 2011. The Beacons, Yotes, and Lewiston Warriors will all represent the No. 3-seeds in Pools G, F, and B, respectively.
A convincing three-set Opening Round victory over Fisk University provided McLain and her program with a tenth-straight appearance at the national final site, with an incredibly diverse lineup capable of downing even the strongest team compositions across the country. From the consistent offensive scheme to the stalwart defensive presence, the Warriors present problems for their opponents across every angle of the court, including a dominant serve-receive mindset where they've nearly doubled their challengers up in total service aces, 206-124. With upperclassmen scattered up and down the starting lineup and some key sophomores serving roles in the middle of the net and in the backrow, the Dubs possess every aspect of a national championship caliber unit when they remain in system, play to their strengths, and stick to the gameplan laid out by McLain and her staff on a match-by-match basis.
Corban women's volleyball is paired up with an interesting duo for pool play in No. 15-ranked Missouri Baptist University and No. 22-ranked University of Mobile, as the two NAIA programs have met head on with the Warriors in the previous 365 days which were all played out in differing results. For a second-straight season, the Navy and Gold will battle their previous season's NAIA Opening Round opponent, as the Rams visited Tim Hills Court on November 23rd of the 2024 season and were promptly handed a three-set sweep in the first ever matchup between the two programs. Meanwhile, the Spartans and Warriors have sparred three separate times over the past three seasons in non-conference action, with Corban emerging victorious in the first two via four-set wins, while MoBap final secured their first win in the all-time matchup this past August on their home court in a five-set thriller.
The Rams (30-3) have improved mightily since their Opening Round matchup with the Navy and Gold in 2024, as did the Saints of Aquinas College (Mich.) who clashed with Corban in the 2023 Opening Round and then again in the 2024 pool play stage. Much like the Warriors, Mobile is fresh off a conference tournament title match of their own, where they dropped the Southern States Athletic Conference (SSAC) championship to RV Loyola University (La.) in four sets. They were the lone higher seed to travel for the Opening Round this year and still emerged victorious over RV Marian University (Ind.) in a four-set "road" win.
Defensively, Rams' libero Jaci Drinnon and middle blocker Emily Osborne are the lone returners to have faced Corban in Salem during the 2024 Opening Round matchup, with both earning First Team All-SSAC honors in 2025 and Drinnon being named the SSAC Defensive Player of the Year. A pair of all-star liberos will meet face-to-face tomorrow morning, with junior Kaile'a Ontai and Drinnon looking to lead their programs to pool play opening victories. Meanwhile, Osborne will need to supply her defensive capabilities in full force if Mobile has a chance of containing the Warriors' reliable attacking front consisting of Roginski (First Team All-CCC), junior outside hitter Emma Bischoff (First Team All-CCC), junior outside hitter Kendra Bittle (Honorable Mention All-CCC), and redshirt sophomore opposite hitter Taylor Kieser.
While the Rams have consistently improved since the end of the 2024 campaign, the Spartans (30-5) have ridden a rollercoaster of a season to the national final site in search of their third national title in a six-year span after winning back-to-back Red Banners in 2020 and 2021. Despite managing to upend the Warriors in their non-conference matchup earlier this season on MBU's home court in five-sets, the Spartans suffered four separate losses to unranked programs throughout the regular season yet will enter pool play on a 15-match winning streak.
Missouri Baptist touts a strong attacking front that earned them a Heart of America Conference tournament championship and share of the regular season title, led by HoA Player of the Year opposite hitter Gabi Jakubowska and her impressive offensive output. The Poland native is undoubtedly their best offensive threat averaging over four kills per set while adding 63 service aces and nearly two digs per set in the backcourt. Outside hitter Allana Capella joined Jakubowska in receiving First Team All-HoA honors for the Spartans, while setter Valentina Navarro earned the Freshman of the Year nod as a true 5-1 all-around setter. MoBap's internationally centered playing scheme is both rare and difficult to recreate across the NAIA, providing them with compelling upset potential against the Navy and Gold once again while also presenting Corban with plenty of opportunities to take advantage of thanks to their limited roster experience that consists of just seven everyday rotation pieces compared to the double-digit Warriors who move around the court depending on potential matchups.
The remainder of the national field contains numerous first time title-contending programs who all bring a high level of both volleyball IQ and capabilities, led by the No. 1-ranked Mountaineers who are still in the hunt for their first national championship match appearance. In 2022, the Warriors handed EOU a four-set national semifinal loss to reach the national championship match themselves and are on a direct collision course to meet in the national semifinal stage once again if they both can win three-straight contests in Sioux City over the next four days. This represents the earliest possible CCC matchup for the Navy and Gold, with the other three conference programs' pools being on the opposite side of the potential bracket.
Despite the top eight seeds holding clear advantages in both competitive balance and pool play schedule, lower seeds have made a lot of noise in pool play as of late, most notably last year when the No. 1-overall seed was bounced early and failed to reach bracket play. No. 9-seeded Cumberlands University (Ky.) is the lone undefeated team in the field and easily the most heavily favored No. 2-seed to win their pool. Among the No. 3-seeds, all three of the CCC programs have proved they can hang with the best in the country given how stacked the Pacific Northwest region has evolved into over the past five years, while No. 17-ranked Midland University has provided upset potential on the national stage on an almost annual basis.
All pool play and bracket play contests will be streamed and available free-to-watch on both the Urban Edge Network and NAIA Network, with the Warriors' Wednesday matchup with Mobile available HERE and their Friday rematch against MoBap available HERE. Any potential bracket play matchup information for the Dubs will be made available on the 2025 Corban women's volleyball schedule once determined.
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