By MATT PIKE
High level volleyball in St. Joseph does not slow down after this week, with high level college volleyball coming to the arena next week.
After several high school teams competed for state championships this week, the MIAA Volleyball Tournament makes its return to the St. Joseph Civic Arena Thursday, November 12th through Saturday, November 14th with the top eight seeds of the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association competing for a conference championship.
St. Joseph Sports Commission Director Brett Esely says this is the longest tenured event at the arena that brings another fun week of volleyball.
"If you've followed MIAA volleyball this year, which I know a lot of people have, as we've said for a number of years and its held true this year as well, I know there's a lot of great Division II conferences on the women's volleyball side, but I'd be hard pressed to the MIAA isn't near the top or at the top," Esely says on the KFEQmunnity show.
Esely says this year's tournament brings a lot of intrigue locally as well, with the Missouri Western State University volleyball team having one of its best seasons in program history.
"Missouri Western's got a great chance to win that tournament and has a great chance to compete very elitely at the national level," Esely explains. "I don't have their record right in front of me, but I think they've lost three matches this year total, and the matches they've lost have literally been five setters.
The Griffons do in fact have a 21-3 record, 9-1 in conference play, losing in five sets to Rockhurst, Nebraska Kearney, and Washburn. The loss to Washburn was part of the in-season MIAA Volleyball tournament, which did not count towards conference record. The tournament at Civic Arena will feature other top teams in the conference as well.
"Nebraska Kearney has a very good team again, Emporia State's had a great year, Washburn's got another great team," Esely says. "But again, I expect the Griffons to compete very well, they were the number two seed last year and got upset in the opening round, and I don't think that's a knock on them I think that's just an illustration on how deep this league is on the volleyball side and I expect that to be no different this year."
Currently, MoWest is entering the tournament as the No. 2 seed once again. The Griffons have matches with Pittsburg State tonight and at Emporia State tomorrow night to close out the regular season. Meanwhile Northwest Missouri State is sitting at the sixth seed, closing their regular season with matches also at Emporia State and Pittsburg State, tonight and tomorrow respectively.
To find out more about the MIAA tournament, including schedule and ticket information, click HERE.