 | |
| Formerly | Eastern Collegiate Volleyball League (ECVL) |
|---|---|
| Association | NCAA |
| Founded | 1971 |
| Commissioner | Russ Yurk |
| Sports fielded |
|
| No. of teams | 7 |
| Region | Northeast |
| Official website | www |
The Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (EIVA) is a college athletic conference whose member schools compete in men's volleyball. Its member institutions are located in the Northeast United States.
The EIVA Tournament champion receives one of six automatic bids to the NCAA National Collegiate Men's Volleyball Championship. The other five automatic bids go to the two other traditional major volleyball conferences, the MIVA (Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association) and the MPSF (Mountain Pacific Sports Federation); the Big West Conference, which in the 2017–18 school year became the first Division I all-sports conference ever to sponsor men's volleyball; and two Division II conferences in Conference Carolinas and the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC). Before the 2014 tournament, the EIVA, MIVA, and MPSF received three of the four bids to the NCAA tournament, with the remaining entry being an at-large bid that was chosen from one of the three leagues by a committee of coaches from these leagues. The tournament expanded to six teams in 2014 when Conference Carolinas was given its automatic bid, seven in 2018 with the addition of the Big West champion, and eight in 2024 with the addition of the SIAC champion. The current lineup consists of the six conference champions and two at-large entries.
Penn State won every conference championship from 1991 through 2017, with the exception of 1998 when Princeton captured the title and 2016 when George Mason won the title.[1] Harvard and Princeton emerged on top in 2018 and 2019, respectively. The Nittany Lions are the only conference team to win the NCAA national championships, having captured the title in 1994 and 2008.
As of the upcoming 2025 season (2024–25 school year), the EIVA consists of seven schools: the University of Charleston (in West Virginia; not to be confused with the College of Charleston in South Carolina), George Mason University, Harvard University, the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), Princeton University, and Sacred Heart University. All are Division I members except for D-II Charleston. The top four teams compete for the EIVA championship. The winner represents the conference in the NCAA Div. I/II national championships.
The most recent change to the EIVA membership was the return of Sacred Heart for the spring 2025 season after a two-year absence. The Pioneers had left the EIVA after the 2022 season to join the new men's volleyball league of its then-current primary home of the Northeast Conference (NEC),[2] but returned to the EIVA when it left the NEC to join the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.[3]
The establishment of NEC men's volleyball also led to the 2022 departure of St. Francis College (known athletically as St. Francis Brooklyn, from its New York City location) and Saint Francis University (in Pennsylvania). This temporarily left the EIVA with six members, the minimum needed to maintain its automatic NCAA tournament berth.[2]
Previously, from 2005-2006 to 2010-2011, the conference was divided into two divisions. The higher division was named the Tait Division and the lower division was named the Hay Division. The conference used a system of promotion and relegation whereby the last place team from the Tait Division went to the Hay for the following season and the highest ranked Hay Division team moved to the Tait. Prior to that, there was a second lower division (equal to Hay) named the Sweeney Division, but this was eliminated for the 2006 season. The two lower divisions were merged into one division at that time.
On April 28, 2012, Uvaldo Acosta (George Mason), Tom Hay (Springfield College), Ivan Marquez (Concordia [NY]), Bill Odeneal (SUNY New Paltz), Bob Sweeney (East Stroudsburg), and Tom Tait (Penn State) were inducted into the EIVA's inaugural Hall of Fame class during the 2012 EIVA Championship match at Penn State.[4]
- ^ "EIVA All-Time Champions". Archived from the original on March 13, 2021. Retrieved 2021-04-21.
- ^ a b "Northeast Conference Announces Men's Volleyball as 25th Championship Sport" (Press release). Northeast Conference. September 30, 2021. Retrieved October 28, 2021.
- ^ "Sacred Heart returning to EIVA family in 2025" (Press release). Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association. April 1, 2024. Retrieved April 8, 2024.
- ^ "EIVA Inaugural Hall of Fame Inductees". Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association. 8 May 2012. Retrieved 5 July 2016.