Pool assignments announced for NAIA Volleyball Nationals

Bracket

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) has released the pool assignments and schedule for the 33rd Annual NAIA Volleyball National Championship presented by CNOS Foundation.

The 23rd-ranked Bruins were placed in Pool E with No. 5 Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (28-4), No. 8 Hastings College (28-4), and No. 18 MidAmerica Nazarene University (25-4).

The Tyson Events Center/Gateway Arena in Sioux City, Iowa, will serve as the final site for the event on Nov. 27 - Dec. 1.

The final 24 teams are placed into six pools and will play a round robin pool play Nov. 27 - Nov. 29, with the top two teams from each pool advancing to the single elimination bracket starting Nov. 30. The championship match will take place at 8 p.m. CST on Dec. 1. 

The Bruins are making their seventh overall and sixth-straight appearance in the NAIA National Volleyball Championship. Bellevue will battle Embry-Riddle at 5:45 p.m. on Nov.27, Hastings at 8 p.m. on Nov. 28, and MidAmerica Nazarene at 5:45 p.m. on Nov. 29. 

Bellevue has already met two of its three opponents, falling in road matches at MidAmerica Nazarene on Sept. 22 and at Embry-Riddle on Oct. 5. Both of those matches were 3-1 losses for the Bruins.

Bellevue (35-9) has won 12-straight, winning the Midlands Collegiate Athletic Conference with a 13-0 record and also capturing the MCAC Tournament title. 

Embry-Riddle won the Sun Conference regular season and tournament titles. Hastings, the Great Plains Athletic Conference regular-season champion, is coached by former Bruin assistant coach Matt Buttermore. MidAmerica Nazarene, which ended the Bruins' 2011 season in the NAIA Volleyball National Championship Opening Round, won the Heart of America Athletic Conference regular season and tournament titles. 

NeuLion, the NAIA's official video-streaming company of 12 select NAIA national championship events, will be broadcasting all single elimination matches of the 2012 Volleyball National Championship. The single-elimination matches' start at 10 a.m. CST on Nov. 30 will be streamed and coverage will continue through the championship match on 8 p.m. CST on Dec. 1. Click here for more information.