Courtesy of Midland Athletics
FREMONT, Neb. – Midland University will host Kansas Wesleyan University in the 2023 NAIA Women’s Volleyball National Championship Opening Round on Saturday. The No. 15-ranked Warriors will battle the Coyotes inside the Wikert Event Center on November 18, beginning at 1:00 p.m.
Midland earned an at-large berth following a 15-11 season, finishing fourth in the ultra-competitive Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC). In the conference postseason tournament, they reached the GPAC Semifinal before falling to the regular-season and postseason champion No. 1-ranked Northwestern. This will be the Warriors’ tenth appearance in the tournament and their fourth straight.
Kansas Wesleyan earned its bid by finishing as the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (KCAC) Tournament runner-up. The Coyotes shared the regular-season conference title, going 12-1, with No. 25-ranked Oklahoma Wesleyan. This will mark the second-straight trip to the NAIA National Tournament for KWU and its fourth appearance in program history.
Saturday’s match is one of 24 opening-round contests at campus locations across the nation. Winners of those matches will advance to the Tyson Events Center in Sioux City, Iowa for pool play beginning on Wednesday, November 29. The tournament runs through Tuesday, December 5 when the 2023 NAIA Women’s Volleyball National Champion will be crowned.
The 24-team national championship final site pool play match-ups will be announced on Sunday, November 19 by the national office.
HOW TO WATCH
Tickets to watch the 1:00 p.m. match in person can be purchased in advance online [link] or at the door on the day of the match. Prices are $10.00 for adults and $5.00 for students. Doors open at 12:00 p.m.
A live stream of the match will be available on the Midland Athletics YouTube channel [link] for those fans unable to attend. Rich Ray, the Voice of the Warriors, will be on the call.
Live statistics of the Midland-Kansas Wesleyan match, and all of the NAIA Opening Round matches, can be found here [link].
