Official Championship Bracket
INDIANAPOLIS - The top eight teams are set to compete in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Volleyball Championship tournament with quarterfinal matches starting on Tuesday evening.
Trevecca and Ursuline clinched the final two spots in the bracket with wins on Friday and Saturday, edging out Malone as the No. 7 and No. 8 seeds.
Hosting first-round playoff matches on Tuesday will be top seed and regular season champion Hillsdale, No. 2 Walsh, No. 3 Findlay and No. 4 Cedarville. Their respective matchups are No. 8 Ursuline, No. 7 Trevecca, No. 6 Tiffin and No. 5 Ohio Dominican.
All quarterfinal matches will be played at 7 p.m. ET and will be streamed on the Great Midwest Digital Network. The final four teams will advance to the semifinals at the top remaining seed. The all-conference team will be announced on Thursday, prior to the semifinals and finals set for Friday and Saturday.
Hillsdale has won the regular season title and championship tournament title for each of its first three years as a league member. The Chargers finished the regular season undefeated in conference play and are currently ranked No. 5 nationally. Hillsdale ranked No. 1 in the nation earlier this season before falling to Gannon in a non-conference match. The Chargers will face No. 8 Ursuline on Tuesday, who finished the regular season at 4-7.
Walsh has qualified for the postseason tournament each year since joining the conference, as the Cavaliers are the No. 2 seed this year. Walsh’s only loss of the season came to Hillsdale in January, as they finished 10-1 on the season, heading into the tournament on a seven-game win streak. The Cavaliers cracked the top 10 rankings for the first time, currently sitting at No. 8 in the nation. They will face Trevecca in a repeat of last year’s quarterfinals. The Trojans finished the regular season at 5-6.
Findlay finished the season at 9-2 and are ranked No. 13 nationally. The Oilers will face Tiffin in a repeat matchup of the 2019 quarterfinals, where Tiffin won and advanced through the bracket to the championship match. The Dragons finished the regular season 6-5.
The No. 4/No. 5 matchup features Cedarville and Ohio Dominican, who are both receiving votes in the national poll. The Yellow Jackets finished the season 8-3 and were one of only two league teams (Cedarville and Walsh) to steal a set from Hillsdale this season. Ohio Dominican finished at 7-4, led by first year head coach Amy Bambenek