INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The third NCAA Volleyball Regional Rankings have been released and Concordia-St. Paul remained in the top spot in this week's poll.
 
As a conference, the NSIC has six of the top eight teams in the central region, including the top two teams.  The Golden Bears and Southwest Minnesota State hold the top two spots as CSP overtook SMSU in last week's poll. Rounding out the NSIC teams in the rankings, Northern State is fourth, Minnesota Duluth is fifth, Winona State seventh followed by Augustana in eighth in the third of three rankings. 
 
The NSIC, the Mid-America Athletic Association (MIAA) and the Great American Conference (GAC) make up the 40-team NCAA Central Region.   The top eight teams in the region will advance to the NCAA region tournament on November 30-December 2.  Automatic bids are granted to the winners of the MIAA, GAC and NSIC postseason tournaments, with the remaining five spots awarded on an at-large basis. 
 
The Golden Bears also maintained their place atop the AVCA Poll this week as they made it three straight weeks at #1. They are one of eighth NSIC schools inside the top-25 in the country.
 
The Golden Bears have now spent an incredible 80 weeks at #1 since they debuted there in the 2003 preseason poll. Since the 2007 season, CSP has ranked #1 at least once every season. In addition, Concordia has spent all but one week inside the top-5 since October 2012. The last time that CSP ranked outside the top-10 was back in 2003.
 
The NCAA Volleyball selection show will be streamed online on Monday, Nov. 20 at 6:30 p.m. on NCAA.com.
 
The 2017 NCAA DII Volleyball Championships will be hosted by the University of West Florida at the UWF Field House in Pensacola, Florida on December 7-9.