High Point, NC-- Conference Carolinas will introduce men’s volleyball as a new conference emerging sport for the 2010 spring season. The league will be the first and only comprised solely of NCAA Division II institutions and is the first league under an actual NCAA supported conference.
"Conference Carolinas is excited be the first NCAA Division II-only conference to add men's volleyball as an emerging sport,” stated Conference Commissioner Alan Patterson. “It affords the opportunity for many terrific high school players to continue competing at a high level in an exciting and fast-moving sport. Men's volleyball is a welcome addition to the Conference Carolinas family of sports."
Five teams will make up the league in its inaugural season. Current institutions in Conference Carolinas that field teams are Lees-McRae College and Mount Olive. They will be joined by fellow league members Limestone College and Pfeiffer University whose programs will be in their inaugural seasons in 2010. King College will round-out the conference as an associate league member. The Tornadoes, who will be fielding a team for their third season, will be welcomed into the league with full men’s volleyball membership privileges.
The league will be just the fourth conference on the men’s volleyball national scene and will compete against Division I, Division II, and Division III competition. The other Division I/Division II men’s volleyball conferences are the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (EIVA), the Midwest Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA), and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF).
Conference regular season competition will be played using a double-round robin format, with teams playing each other twice during the year. Regular season play will determine the top two teams and seeds that will play each other for the conference championship in a one game playoff. The inaugural men’s volleyball conference championship will be hosted by the highest-seeded team on Saturday, April 17, 2010.