Women's Volleyball | 11/17/2025 6:40:00 PM
GROVE CITY, Pa. (pacathletics.org) - The Grove City College women's volleyball program wil make their first NCAA Tournament appearance in nearly 40 years when they take on three-time defending national champion Juniata College in an opening round game Thursday afternoon. The 2 pm match will be played at Virginia Wesleyan University, who will host the eight-team regional this weekend.
The Wolverines earned the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament by completing a three-game run in the PAC Tournament, claiming three matches on the road in a five-day stretch. After winning 3-2 at Washington & Jefferson College in the quarterfinal and sweeping Thiel College 3-0 in Greenville in the semifinals, Grove City completed the run with a 3-0 sweep (25-20, 25-20, 25-23) at top-seeded Hiram College in the title game.
The win gave the Wolverines their 10th all-time PAC championship in women's volleyball and first since 2001. It also punched a ticket to the NCA Tournament, the sixth all-time trip to the national playoffs for Grove City and first since 1986.
Grove City got hot at the right time, winning six of their last eight in the regular season before rolling off the three Tournament wins. The Wolverines finished fourth in the PAC North Division with a 9-7 conference mark and bring a 20-8 overall record into the NCAAs. It's the first 20-win season since 2019, which was the first season under current head coach Leo Sayles. In seven years guiding the program, Sayles has led Grove City to a 118-72 record and now three postseason appearances adding this year's NCAA bid with ECAC Tournament invitations in 2019 and 2022.
The Wolverines first opponent is one of the premier programs in college volleyball. Juniata has won five national championships, including the last three from 2022-24. The Eagles were undefeated in winning the last two crowns, going 35-0 en route to capturing titles in 2023 and 2024.
This year's Juniata team may not be undefeated, but still posted another outstanding season. The Eagles (27-5) won the Landmark Conference championship, their 44th consecutive conference title, by outlasting Scranton for a 3-2 win (21-25, 25-13, 25-16, 20-25, 15-6) in the tournament final to earn the automatic bid to the NCAAs.
This will be the 18th time Grove City has taken the floor against the Eagles, with Juniata holding a 14-3 series advantage. This will also be the fourth time the team have faced in the NCAA Tournament. The Eagles knocked off the Wolverines 3-2 in the second round of the 1982 Tournament. The programs met again in the first round in 1984 and the second round in 1985, with Juniata scoring a 3-1 victory over Grove City both years.
The winner of this year's Grove City/Juniata match-up will face the winner of Christopher Newport (24-7)/Cortland (24-7) in a second round game Friday at 4:30 pm. On the other side of the bracket, Virginia Wesleyan (31-2) takes on John Jay (23-6) and Berry (24-7) will take on Washington and Lee (23-9).