2019 Volleyball Teams Announced for National Championships
The United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) has announced the teams that will compete for the 2019 Volleyball National Championships in Virginia Beach, VA. This will be the fourth consecutive year teams will participate in USCAA Fall Championship Week; a first-class event combining USCAA National Championships in Volleyball, Soccer, and Cross Country. The Volleyball National Championship will take place Thursday, November 7th through Saturday, November 9th at the Virginia Beach Field House. This marks the second year that the USCAA Volleyball National Championships will be broken out into Division I and Division II.
The Virginia Beach Field House is a 175,000 square foot facility with eight regulation sized volleyball courts. The facility has a fully stocked food court, arcade, indoor Fun Zone, and locker rooms. The USCAA will reserve two courts for tournament play in the back of the facility to create a separate atmosphere for the championships. The Division I bracket will feature a four team round robin style pool play with winner taking on the pool runner up. The Division II bracket will feature a six team pool play format consisting of two pools with three teams in each.
. Earning the top overall seed in this year’s Division I volleyball tournament will be the reigning champions, Florida National University. Defensively the Conquistadors take care of the ball, ranking 2nd in the association with 1,215 digs. The University of Maine Fort Kent will be slotted into the second overall seed. They currently have a record of 13-8. With a pair of games left to be played this season.
Mid-Atlantic Christian University has been given the third overall seed in this year’s tournament. The Mustangs look to make their first appearance in the National Championship a strong one. Mallary Brogden leads the team in kills and is second in digs. Bluefield State College has earned the final seed in the tournament. Another team making their first National Tournament appearance, the Big Blues will be looking to be led by Danielle Baker, Raenel Crensha and Cydney Vineyard.
The 2019 USCAA Division II Volleyball National Championship features a competitive field. The University of Cincinnati Clermont Cougars are the number one overall seed in this year’s tournament. The Cougars enter the tournament with an overall record of 24-6. They took down several notable opponents throughout the season including Johnson & Wales Charlotte and Penn State Fayette. Clermont leads the association in kills, assists, service aces, and total blocks. UC Clermont will be the top team in Pool A.
The second seed goes to the Johnson and Wales-Charlotte Wildcats who is the reigning National Champion. The Wildcats will be the top team in Pool B. Led offensively by Iyana Favor and Toniya Scott, the Wildcats finished among the top five as a team in kills, assists and digs this season. Penn State Fayette, the Penn State University Athletic Conference champions, holds the third seed in the tournament and will compete in Pool B. The Lady Lions finished the season with a 24-3 record, while only suffering one conference loss all season.
Penn State Beaver possess the fourth overall seed in this year’s tournament and will compete in Pool A. This will be the first tournament appearance for the Lady Lions. Offensively the team is led by a pair of outside hitters, Amanda Mike and Ramiya White, who are leading the team in kills with 240 and 177 respectively.
Penn State Greater Allegheny hold the fifth seed and will round out Pool A. Penn State Greater Allegheny finished the season with an 18-10 overall record and will be making their first tournament appearance in school history. As a team, they are second in the USCAA in kills, third in assists and fourth in digs, making them a well-rounded squad.
The sixth and final seed to round out Pool B is Great Bay Community College, who received an automatic bid as the champion of the Yankee Conference. This is also Great Bay’s first National Championship bid in any sport. The Herons finished the season with an overall record of 12-2 and will be led by Brynn Coleman who was named 2019 YSCC Player of the Year and to the All-Conference team.
You can follow all the action by visiting the USCAA Fall Championship Week website – uscaafallchampionships.com. Live streams and statistics will be available for each game of the tournament. A standard stream is free of charge and a high-definition feed will be available for a small fee.