NCAA Women's Volleyball Championship

rdf:langString NCAA Women's Volleyball Championship

rdf:langString The NCAA Women's Volleyball Championship refers to one of three championships in women's indoor volleyball contested by the NCAA since 1981: * NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Championship * NCAA Division II Women's Volleyball Championship * NCAA Division III Women's Volleyball Championship From 1970 through 1980, before the NCAA governed women's collegiate athletics, the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women alone conducted the women's collegiate volleyball championships. Volleyball was one of twelve women's sports added to the NCAA championship program for the 1981-82 school year, as the NCAA engaged in battle with the AIAW for sole governance of women's collegiate sports. The AIAW continued to conduct its established championship program in the same twelve (and other) sports; however, after a year of dual women's championships, the NCAA prevailed over the AIAW acquired its membership. In the NCAA Women's Volleyball Championship, separate tournaments are conducted for Division I, Division II, and Division III institutions. This differs from NCAA men's volleyball because there are far more NCAA member schools offering women's volleyball. Until the 2011–12 school year (2012 men's season—NCAA women's volleyball is a fall sport, while men's volleyball is a spring sport), there was no official divisional structure in men's collegiate volleyball; all men's teams, regardless of their divisional affiliation, were eligible to compete for the NCAA championship. Even today, the divisional structure in men's volleyball is truncated, with a National Collegiate Championship (previously the only men's tournament) for schools in Divisions I and II, plus the newly created Division III Championship. In the sport of beach volleyball, the NCAA conducts a women-only, all-divisions championship. The inaugural championship was held in spring 2016.