Savannah College of Art and Design

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Savannah College of Art and Design will face a familiar opponent - the University of Mobile - in the opening round of the NAIA Volleyball National Championship Saturday (Nov. 21) at Pharr Gym in Mobile, Ala. Match time will be announced Monday (Nov. 16).

This will be the third time this season the teams have met on the court, with SCAD coming out on the winning side each time. SCAD defeated Mobile 3-2 (26-24, 25-19, 19-25, 19-25 and 15-6) back in August in Savannah, Ga., in the SCAD Invitational. The two sides met a month later at the Lee University Invitational in Cleveland, Tenn., with SCAD winning 3-1 (25-17, 17-25, 30-28 and 25-22).

The Bees (28-7) and the Rams (24-11) each earned one of the 27 automated berths to the 36-team national tournament. The Bees were champions of The Sun Conference while the Rams qualified as champions of the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference. The Bees are making their fifth trip to the national tournament in the past six seasons while Mobile is advancing to their third consecutive event.

The top 11 teams and the host institution - Morningside College - receive a bye in the opening round matches and advance to the Tyson Events Center/Gateway Arena in Sioux City, Iowa, for the final rounds of the NAIA National Championship presented by Siouxland Sports Medicine Foundation Dec. 1-5. The next 24 teams will play in the opening round matches with the 12 winners advancing to the finals site.

The final 24 teams will be placed into six pools and will play a round-robin pool play Dec. 2-4, with the top two teams from each pool advancing to the single elimination bracket starting Dec. 4. The championship match will take place at 8 p.m. Central time Dec. 5.

NAIA National Championship
Opening Round
Saturday's matches
Evangel at Olivet Nazarene, TBD
Lewis-Clark State at Southern Oregon, TBD
Menlo at Point Loma Nazarene, TBD
Indiana East at Taylor, TBD
Walsh at Indiana Tech, TBD
Friends at Bellevue, TBD
Black Hills State at Doane, TBD
Freed-Hardeman at Lee, TBD
St. Thomas (Texas) at Lubbock Christian, TBD
Union (Ky.) at Shawnee State, TBD
SCAD at Mobile, TBD
Ozarks at St. Ambrose, TBD