NCAA Division III men's volleyball tournament

The NCAA Division III men's volleyball tournament is the annual tournament organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the main governing body for U.S. college sports United States, to determine the national champions of collegiate indoor volleyball among its Division III members. It has been held every year since 2012, except for 2020 (this was the newest NCAA championship from 2012 to 2016, when a beach volleyball championship was ended.^[1]

NCAA Division III men's volleyball tournament

Association	NCAA
Sport	College indoor volleyball
Founded	2012; 13 years ago (2012)
Division	Division III
No. of teams	19
Country	United States
Most recent champion(s)	Southern Virginia (1st)
Most titles	Springfield (5)
Official website	NCAA.com

Springfield have been the most successful program, with five titles.

Southern Virginia are the defending champions, winning their first championship in 2025.

History

The idea of a Division III championship was first floated by several figures in the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association in the late 1980s, but was long dormant because of NCAA participation rules—50 schools must sponsor a sport before a national championship tournament can be officially sanctioned. The main impetus for growth in Division III volleyball had been an unofficial D-III championship tournament known as the Molten Invitational, started in 1997. In 2010, the required number of programs was reached, leading to the creation of the D-III championship.^[2]

Format

See also: List of NCAA men's volleyball programs

The Division III championship began in 2012 with nine teams and has steadily expanded with the growth of D-III men's volleyball. The most recent expansion came for the 2019 season, with the field going from 12 to 14 teams.^[3] This differs from the top-level NCAA Men's National Collegiate Volleyball Championship, which involved four teams through the 2013 tournament and expanded to six teams for 2014 and seven for 2018. Like the National Collegiate Championship, the Division III championship is a knockout tournament, with best-of-5-set matches. The current tournament format features six first-round matches, with the winners joining the top two seeds in the quarterfinals.^[4]

The tournament was not held in 2020 due to COVID-19, and with a significant number of schools opting out of competition in 2021 due to the still-ongoing pandemic, that year's field was reduced to 12 teams from the intended 14. The field has since been expanded twice—to 16 in 2022 and the current 19 in 2025.

Results

Year	National Champion	Score	Runner-up	City and venue		Attendance Finals/Total	Host school/organization
2012[5]	Springfield (33–5)	3–0	Carthage (29–6)	Springfield, MA	Blake Arena	1,600 5,723	Springfield
2013[6]	Springfield (32–3)[7]	3–0[8]	Nazareth (36–2)[7]	Pittsford, NY[a]	Kidera Gymnasium	1,000 2,676	Nazareth
2014	Springfield (27–8)[10]	3–0[10]	Juniata (29–5)[11]	Huntingdon, PA	Kennedy Sports Center[11]	816 3,022	Juniata
2015	Stevens (31–4)[12]	3–0	Springfield (25–7)[13]	Hoboken, NJ	Canavan Arena	1,126 2,506	Stevens
2016	New Paltz (33–2)	3–1	Springfield (28–4)	Pittsford, NY	Kidera Gymnasium	914 3,364	Nazareth
2017	Springfield (33–5)	3–1	New Paltz (27–9)	Springfield, MA	Blake Arena	2,000 6,099	Springfield
2018	Springfield (31–2)	3–0	Stevens (27–5)	Kenosha, WI	Tarble Arena	550	Carthage
2019	New Paltz (28–7)	3–1	UC Santa Cruz (21–17)	Union, NJ	Harwood Arena	322	Kean
2020	Canceled due to COVID-19			Dubuque, IA	Lillis Athletic & Wellness Center	N/A	Loras
2021	Carthage (23–0)[14]	3–2	Benedictine (IL) (16-4)[15]	Salem, VA[b]	Salem Civic Center	250	Continental Volleyball Conference
2022	Carthage (24-3)[16]	3–1[17]	Springfield (29–2)[18]	Kenosha, WI	Tarble Arena	2,175	Carthage
2023	Stevens (35–3)[19]	3–1[20]	North Central (IL) (25–4)[21]	Owings Mills, MD	Owings Mills Gymnasium	267	Stevenson
2024	Cal Lutheran (26–5)[22]	3–0	Vassar (26–8)[23]	Dubuque, IA	Lillis Athletic & Wellness Center	275	Loras
2025	Southern Virginia (35–1)[24]	3–0[25]	Springfield (25–5)[26]	Salem, VA	Cregger Center	1,202	Roanoke/Old Dominion Athletic Conference
2026				Springfield, MA	Blake Arena		Springfield

Champions

Team	Titles	Years
Springfield	5	2012, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2018
Stevens	2	2015, 2023
Carthage	2	2021, 2022
New Paltz	2	2016, 2019
Cal Lutheran	1	2024
Southern Virginia	1	2025

Footnotes

1. The championship was originally scheduled for the MIT campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was moved in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings. ^[9]
2. The championship was originally scheduled for Kidera Gymnasium at the campus of Nazareth College in Pittsford, New York. It was moved due to COVID-19 issues.

See also

• NCAA Men's Volleyball Championships (Divisions I and II)
• NAIA Men's Volleyball Championship