INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. --- Randolph-Macon College continues its historic season as the ODAC representative in the Division III Men's Volleyball Championship as announced via selection show on Monday morning on NCAA.com. The nationally 17th-ranked Yellow Jackets earned their spot by automatic qualification after winning their second straight ODAC title.
The Division III men's volleyball bracket includes 21 teams with 14 qualifying automatically as conference champions like Randolph-Macon. The remaining seven entrants were determined by ranking in the NCAA Power Index (NPI).
All teams in a given sport -- 130 in D-III men's volleyball -- earn a NPI rating. Those NPI ratings are ranked sequentially and form a transparent method of selecting teams at-large to Division III brackets, replacing the former process of the sport championship committees selecting teams at-large based on predetermined selection criteria. Once the 14 automatic qualifiers are known, the next seven best NPI-rated teams formed the list of at-large selected programs to fill out the bracket.
ODAC fans can turn their attention to Central Pennsylvania with the Yellow Jackets -- the only team in Division III with 30 wins so far this season -- traveling to No. 2 Juniata College early round play in a five-team pod at the Huntingdon-based school. Juniata, Messiah University, and Randolph-Macon each received a bye into the second round. The lone first-round matchup of the pod -- scheduled for Thursday, April 16 -- features Wentworth Institute of Technology and Wittenberg University. The Leopards (19-9) won the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) title, while the Tigers (21-5) won the Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League (MCVL) championship. Those two squads ranked 16th and 24th in the final NPI rankings, respectively. Wentworth is ranked 15th in the AVCA top-20 poll.
The winner of that first round matchup meets Juniata in round two on Friday. The host Eagles (29-2) won their fifth Continental Volleyball Conference (CVC) title over defending national champion Southern Virginia University to cap a final-four event hosted by Washington and Lee. Juniata, a national semifinalist in 2025, is currently ranked second by the AVCA and holds the same position in the final NPI listing. Friday's second matchup is a rematch of an earlier showdown this season between RMC and Messiah. The Falcons (25-5) earned a 3-1 win over the Yellow Jackets in February in Ashland. Eighth-ranked Messiah earned an at-large bid out of the Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) after finishing as the runner-up to No. 5 Stevens Institute. Messiah is seventh in the NPI table.
Winners of the second round matchups will play on Saturday in the quarterfinals with a spot in the final four on the line. Blake Arena on the campus of top-ranked and 2025 runner-up Springfield College will be the host venue for the national semifinal and championship matches. Those are slated for Thursday, April 23, and Saturday, April 25, in Springfield, Mass.