MESA, Ariz. – For the first time since the inaugural NAIA National Invitational that the Corban University Beach Volleyball program won in the spring of 2022, the Warriors will have the opportunity to win their second national title in their own time zone, as the 2026 NAIA Beach Volleyball National Invitational begins tomorrow morning in sunny southcentral Arizona at the Arizona Athletic Grounds.
"We made it into the final eight teams still competing, and now it will be all about taking care to do the basic fundamentals well," explained Corban head coach Dan Stephens when asked to discuss their upcoming national tourney run. "There will be strong winds at the courts this week, which changes the whole game and the teams that can control their passing and serving will come out on top. We've played both The Master's and Southern Oregon multiple times this season, but outside of those teams we do not know what to expect from the other five programs in attendance. We are grateful for the opportunity to be here, and we are more than capable of winning the Red Banner with disciplined play."
With the first four national tournaments taking place on the east coast, the No. 3-seeded Warriors (24-7) join four more west coast teams looking to claim the coveted NAIA Red Banner. A west coast team has won each of the first four national championship crowns, with Corban having won the inaugural tournament followed by back-to-back by now NCAA DII Vanguard University, and last year's being claimed by Ottawa University-Arizona (OUAZ).
The Warriors will represent the No. 3-overall seed and have been placed in a four-team pool alongside No. 2-seeded The Master's University (18-6), No. 6-seeded New College of Florida (13-3), and No. 7-seeded Arizona Christian University (13-13). Pool A will feature No. 1-seeded Southern Oregon University (19-2), No. 4-seeded OUAZ (20-7), No. 5-seeded Ave Maria University (15-3), and No. 8-seeded Wayland Baptist University (16-2).
Arizona Christian earned a bid to the national tourney in the same fashion as the Navy and Gold, having been selected as one of the three at-large programs who either didn't have access to an automatic berth or did not earn one from their conference regular season or tournament results. The Master's was able to jump Corban at the very last second thanks to an upset over former No. 1-ranked OUAZ to claim the GSAC Tournament Championship over ACU. Meanwhile, New College of Florida makes their first ever NAIA National Invitational appearance after claiming the regular season title in the Sun Conference, which now has enough teams for two automatic qualifying bids.
Corban beach volleyball enters as the winningest team at the national tournament, having claimed 24 dual victories out of their 31 regular season and postseason matchups to date. Additionally, they hold the pair with the highest number of wins on the year across the country, represented by senior Emmi Marks and junior Emma Bischoff who have accumulated 27 head-to-head wins from the No. 1-overall flight for the Warriors. Marks and Bischoff are joined by the Warriors' third and fourth overall pairings with 20+ wins to their names, as both duos of senior Alexis Adebodun and junior Cammie Masanda alongside redshirt junior Erin Scott and freshman Emily Blagg secured 21-7 records through the 2026 season to date.
The Dubs enter the national invite having only faced the Mustangs and Raiders at various checkpoints of the 2026 season, splitting their two matchups with TMU while Southern Oregon claimed four of their five meetings. SOU will carry the heavy burden of representing the top overall seed for the first time in program history, while The Master's represents the seed just above Corban in Pool B who enters as one of the hottest teams in the NAIA.
Both New College of Florida and Arizona Christian enter the national tourney riding different levels of play, with ACU reaching the GSAC championship title match while NCF closed out a dominant regular season with a nail-biting 3-2 loss in the Sun Conference championships to the Gyrenes. Meanwhile, SOU's bracket features the ever-growing Ave Maria program that upset New College of Florida for the tournament title, with their only losses of the year coming to the Banyans and NCAA DI University of Nebraska. The final team to join the field was Wayland Baptist, who is only in their second year as a program and joined New College of Florida as first-year qualifiers for the national invite. The Pioneers are fresh off an AVCA Small College Beach Championship crown, earning an at-large berth to Mesa as the only central time zone program in the field.
The 2026 NAIA National Invitational will have each round of pool play available to follow along via live stat links online via Stat Broadcast. Links will be made available for any future bracket play matches on the Corban beach volleyball online schedule, while their pool play matchups can be found available here: Corban vs Arizona Christian | Corban vs New College of Florida | Corban vs The Master's
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