Northwestern College was officially named as one of the 44 qualifiers to the 2017 NAIA Volleyball National Championship announced by the national office earlier today. 

The Red Raiders earned one of the 20 automatic bids to the final site, the Tyson Events Center in Sioux City, Iowa, and will open championship play with a pool play match on Tuesday, Nov. 28. The remaining 24 teams will play in one of the 12 Championship-Opening Round matches this weekend on Saturday, Nov. 18 with the winners advancing to the final site and completing the 32-team field at the Tyson.

This year's field includes 33 automatic qualifiers, 10 at-large selections and one host berth (Morningside). The automatic berths are determined by regular-season champions, conference tournament title winners or runner-ups. The remaining at-large bids were determined by the final regular season Women's Volleyball Coaches' Top 25 Poll announced Monday. That Top 25 Poll can be viewed here. Final site pools will be determined on Sunday, Nov. 19, and released by 5 p.m. CST

Northwestern is making its 13th trip to the NAIA Volleyball National Championship and first since 2014. They earned one of the 10 at-large spots and join four other teams from the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) in the field; Hasings, Dordt, Midland and Morningside. 

The Red Raiders were the tri-regular season champions, along with Dordt and Hastings, and are 28-4 this season. 

NAIA Press Release | 

Opening Round Schedule
Saturday, Nov. 18 | Campus Sites
Match 1 - Campbellsville (Ky.) at Texas Wesleyan
Match 2 - College of the Ozarks (Mo.) at Ottawa (Kan.)
Match 3 - IU East (Ind.) at Missouri Valley
Match 4 - IU Kokomo (Ind.) at Indiana Wesleyan
Match 5 - Lincoln Christian (Ill.) at Bellevue (Neb.)
Match 6 - Marian (Ind.) at Xavier (La.)
Match 7 - Mobile (Ala.) at Embry-Riddle (Ariz.)
Match 8 - Oklahoma City at Our Lady of the Lake (Texas)
Match 9 - Reinhardt (Ga.) at Northwest (Wash.)
Match 10 - St. Xavier (Ill.) at Union (Ky.)
Match 11 - Trinity Christian (Ill.) at Tabor (Kan.)
Match 12 - Webber International (Fla.) at Lourdes (Ohio)