Official Midwest Region Crossover Tournament Page
INDIANAPOLIS – The largest NCAA volleyball tournament of any kind in the country is coming back to The Academy Club as the Great Midwest Athletic Conference, Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) and Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC), collaborate for the 2019 Midwest Region Crossover.
Starting Friday morning, 11 courts in the facility will be utilized for a total of 63 matches over two days with 41 total teams from the three conferences coming to the area.
This is the 12th annual edition of the event and the second straight year it will be conducted in Indianapolis.
Each team is guaranteed three matches with the intent of enhancing its resume for postseason qualification to the NCAA Championship bracket.
The GLVC will field a total of 16 teams, the Great Midwest has all 13 in this year’s schedule and the GLIAC will travel 12 different programs.
Multiple AVCA nationally-ranked teams are also competing, including No. 16 Hillsdale, the two-time conference champion of the Great Midwest. Also nationally ranked in the Crossover field is No. 10 Lewis, No. 13 Ferris State, No. 17 Rockhurst and No. 24 Michigan Tech.
Receiving votes in the latest poll was UIndy and Missouri-St. Louis, both from the GLVC.
At last year’s Midwest Region Crossover Tournament, the Great Midwest came away with nine victories, including a Walsh upset over No. 10 ranked Rockhurst. Lake Erie and Ohio Dominican each went 2-1.
Understandably, the higher the seed, the tougher the opponent one could expect to draw from the GLIAC and GLVC. That is certainly the case once again this year as Hillsdale will face Lewis and Rockhurst as the Great Midwest’s top seed.
Current league leaders through the conference schedule including Hillsdale’s Allyssa Van Wienen (hitting percentage), Tiffin’s Jenna Huffman (kills/points) HC’s Lindsey Mertz (assists), HC’s Taylor Wiese (digs), HC’s Hannah Gates (blocks) and Trevecca Nazarene’s Ellie Buffler (service aces).
The traditional all-tournament team with members from all three conferences will be announced at the conclusion of the event.