November 22, 2025

November 21, 2025
HELENA, Mont. – The 2025 NAIA Women's Volleyball Championship Opening Round will take place on Saturday, November 22 at 24 campus sites across the country.  Two Frontier Conference teams are preparing for the 2025 NAIA Women’s Volleyball Opening Round on Saturday.  Twenty-four campus sites are scheduled to host across the nation, including both Frontier teams.

Both Providence (Mont.) and Bellevue (Neb.) earned the Frontier Conference’s automatic bids to the national tournament.  The Argos, who are the league regular season and postseason tournament champions, are the No. 6 national seed with an overall record of 31-2.  UP opens their national postseason play on Saturday evening at 6 p.m. versus Northwest (Wash.) in Great Falls, Mont.

The Bruins followed up with the national No. 7 seed with an overall record of 26-4.   Bellevue, who was the NAIA national runner-up last season, opens their national postseason play Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. (Central Time)/12 p.m. (Mountain Time) at home versus Columbia (Mo.).

This year’s championship field includes 33 automatic qualifiers and 15 at-large selections. Automatic berths were given to teams that either won their respective conference tournament title, the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament, regular-season championship, or finished runner-up at the conference tournament, as determined by each conference qualification plan. At-large bids were determined by the NAIA Women’s Volleyball Selection Committee. The selection committee consists of coaches and administrators from around the country.

All championship opening round matches will be broadcast by each host and can be viewed for free on the NAIA Channel of the Urban Edge Network.

Following the opening rounds, the final site pools will be announced on Sunday, November 23, at 1 p.m. CT. 

Highlights

• All qualifying teams will be participating in the opening round. The winner of each opening round will advance to the final site. 
• History of Opening Rounds
  • Opening round prior to the final site was first started in 2008
  • From 2008 to 2019, not every team competed in the opening round. The top 15 advanced to the final site automatically. 
  • From 2020 to the present, all teams compete in the opening round before advancing to the final site.  
• Twenty-eight of the 48 qualifiers qualified for the 2024 championships, including Providence and Bellevue.
• Thirteen of the teams, that have competed in an opening round previously, are undefeated: Northwest (Wash.), Dakota Wesleyan (S.D.), Lewis-Clark State (Idaho), Oklahoma Wesleyan, Providence (Mont.), Taylor (Ind.), Midland (Neb.), Northwestern (Iowa), Park (Mo.), Eastern Oregon, Viterbo (Wis.), Corban (Ore.) and Missouri Baptist.  
• Players to watch  
  • Four of the top five players in the nation in assists per set will be competing this weekend: Sydney Collins of Oklahoma Wesleyan ranks No. 1, 12.13; Abbigail Porter of Indiana Wesleyan ranks No. 2, 11.50; Bella Thompson of Providence (Mont.) ranks No. 3, 11.44; Savanah Jolly of Cumberlands (Ky.) ranks No. 5, 10.86.