INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference regular season and tournament champion Trinity University (24-6), as the league's automatic qualifier, has earned its eighth-straight berth in the 64-team NCAA Div. III Women’s Volleyball Tournament. NCAA Release | Tournament Bracket
The Tigers earned the SCAC automatic bid by virtue of their 3-1 win over Southwestern University Saturday afternoon. The SCAC championship was the program’s 22nd title, an SCAC record.
Trinity will travel to Atlanta, Ga., for its NCAA opening round contest against Southern Virginia University (22-11), the automatic qualifier out of the USA South Conference. The opening round contest will be the first ever meeting between the Tigers and the Knights in the NCAA Tournament. Historically the SCAC is 4-0 all-time against the USA South in the NCAA Tournament. The winner of Trinity and Southern Virginia will take on the winner of Berry (16-13) and Whitworth (26-2). Berry and Whitworth both received automatic berths into the field by winning the Southern Athletic Association (SAA) and Northwest Conference (NWC) title, respectively. The team that emerges out of the bottom half of the eight-team regional pod will take on the survivor of the top half between host Emory University (26-2), Covenant College (22-12), Transylvania University (22-7) and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (21-6) for the Regional Title and a spot in the National Quarterfinals.
Trinity is making its 29th tournament appearance and the program’s 11th in the last 12 tournaments. The Tigers have gotten strong performances this season from SCAC Player-of-the-Year fifth-year middle blocker Maddie Fate and SCAC Freshman-of-the-Year Taylor Starr. Fate enters the NCAA Tournament averaging an SCAC best 1.19 blocks per set and the league’s second best hitting percentage at .391, while Starr is second in the conference right behind Fate averaging 1.14 blocks per set. As a team the Tigers are second in all of NCAA Division III with 297.5 total blocks and their 2.61 blocks per set average is sixth best in the country. Trinity holds an all-time NCAA postseason record of 45-28, including a runner-up finish in 2022. The Tigers also earned a national-runner up finish in 1999, a third-place finish in 2002 and were semifinalist in 2019.
Regional competition will be Thursday through Saturday, Nov. 21-23, at all sites.
The championship will be held Dec. 4-7 at the Cregger Center in Salem, Virginia, with the City of Salem and Old Dominion Athletic Conference serving as hosts.
In the 2023 final, Juniata defeated Hope College to win its second consecutive and fourth NCAA volleyball championship in school history.
