BLOOMINGTON, Minn. – Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) volleyball teams are back on the court and ready for the 2025 season.
The fall season officially gets underway on Friday, August 29, with nearly two dozen non-conference matches. While a handful of MIAC squads will stay home to host contests next weekend, others will log travel time, with matches as close as Iowa and Wisconsin and as far as California, Georgia, and Washington. Conference play gets underway the week of September 22. The regular season will run through Saturday, November 8.
The top six teams in the conference standings at the end of the regular season will move on to the 2025 MIAC Volleyball Playoffs. The conference tournament will begin with two quarterfinal contests on Tuesday, November 11, followed by a pair of semifinal matches on Thursday, November 13. The 2025 MIAC Volleyball Playoff Championship is set for Saturday, November 15, with the winner securing the conference's automatic qualifier to the NCAA Tournament. The 2025 NCAA Division III Women's Volleyball Championship is scheduled for December 3-6, 2025, at the Shirk Center Arena in Bloomington, Illinois.
The bracket for the national tournament will be unveiled during the Selection Show on Monday, November 17. After the automatic qualifiers have been awarded to conference champions across Division III, the remaining NCAA Tournament qualifiers will be selected "at-large" via the NCAA Power Index (NPI). The Women’s Volleyball NPI will calculate winning percentage, strength of schedule, home-away results, and quality wins to rank teams for at-large postseason consideration.
2024 FINAL STANDINGS
Gustavus (20-10, 11-0)*
Bethel (20-9, 9-2)
St. Catherine (20-9, 9-2)
Saint Benedict (15-12, 8-3)#%
Augsburg (16-14, 7-4)
St. Olaf (19-10, 6-5)
Macalester (13-15, 5-6)
Carleton (13-13, 4-7)
St. Scholastica (13-16, 3-8)
Hamline (9-19, 2-9)
Concordia (2-25, 2-9)
Saint Mary’s (7-21, 0-11)
*MIAC Regular Season Champion
#MIAC Playoff Champion
%NCAA Championship Participant
RULE CHANGES
The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel (PROP) reviewed and approved a handful of rule changes last year for implementation during the 2024 and 2025 seasons. Among those items was a rule that allows referees to issue a red card to the host team if a spectator enters the designated player area. PROP also clarified rules on uniforms and accessories, creating logo standards for uniform bottoms, allowing for snug-fitting nose rings and ear cuffs to be worn during matches, and requiring that headbands be a single color.
Teams were also allowed two libero designations for each set beginning last season, and a successive contact rule was put into place to limit controversy created by judgment calls. On a team’s second hit, contacting the ball more than once in a single attempt to play the ball is not a fault if the ball is next contacted by a teammate. The rule change was made to promote better consistency and match flow for players and fans.
In the MIAC, volleyball coaches approved a pre-match protocol similar to the NCAA Championship format to ensure clarity and consistency throughout the conference.
MIAC SPORTS NETWORK
The MIAC Sports Network powered by Hudl returns as the streaming home of all MIAC-hosted games, events, and championships. The MIAC Sports Network is available on the web (https://miacsportsnetwork.com/) along with streaming apps for television and mobile devices, including Android TV, Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku (TV), iOS, Android (mobile), and Amazon Fire Tablet. The app can be found and installed free of charge by searching for the MIAC Sports Network.
The 2025 MIAC Volleyball Playoffs will be streamed live on the MIAC Sports Network in a pay-per-view format. Individual playoff contests will be streamed for $10 each. A $25 "playoff pass" to stream all five matches will also be available for purchase. Details and information on purchasing pay-per-view access will be made available in advance of the conference playoffs. Access and availability of regular-season match streams will not be impacted by this policy change.
AWARD WATCH
The 2025 MIAC Volleyball All-Conference honors will be voted on by MIAC coaches after the regular season. In addition to a 22-player All-MIAC squad, coaches will also vote on individual awards for the MIAC Offensive, Defensive, Rookie, and Coach of the Year.
Throughout the regular season, the MIAC will recognize top individual performances with the MIAC Volleyball Offensive and Specialist (Defensive/Setter) of the Week awards. Athlete of the Week awards will begin on Tuesday, September 2, and be announced each Monday following through the end of the regular season. During the week following the MIAC Playoffs, participating coaches will also select a nine-player All-Playoff Team in recognition of outstanding performances throughout the conference tournament.