INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The third NCAA Volleyball Regional Rankings of the season have been released and the Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team dropped to the fourth spot. The Golden Bears are joined by five other NSIC schools as the league represents six of the top nine spots.
 
The Golden Bears have hosted the NCAA Central Region Tournament nine times heading into this season. They have also claimed the region crown 11 times since 2003, winning the NCAA DII Championship in nine of those seasons.
 
CSP sits behind Nebraska-Kearney in the top spot, Minnesota Duluth in the second spot and Northern State in the third spot. St. Cloud State was picked sixth, Wayne State was picked seventh and Winona State was picked ninth to round out the NSIC teams in the rankings.
 
The NSIC, the Mid-America Athletic Association (MIAA) and the Great American Conference (GAC) make up the 39-team NCAA Central Region.   The top eight teams in the region will advance to the NCAA region tournament on December 5-7.  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 NCAA Volleyball selection show will be streamed online on Sunday, Nov. 25 at 6:30 p.m. on NCAA.com.
 
The championship quarterfinals, semifinals and final match will take place Thursday-Saturday, December 12-14, at the Auraria Event Center in Denver, hosted by Metropolitan State University of Denver.