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.
 | |
| 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 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]
Members
editAs of the 2024–25 school year, the EIVA has seven member teams, six from the NCAA's Division I. The University of Charleston of Division II joined the conference for competition in 2016 after spending the 2015 season as an independent.[5] The most recent changes in membership were the 2022 departure of Sacred Heart, St. Francis Brooklyn, and Saint Francis (PA) for the NEC, followed in 2024 by Sacred Heart's return to the EIVA.
Through the 2014 season, Division III Rutgers–Newark had been the EIVA's eighth member but spent its final years in the EIVA transitioning to Division III men's volleyball and left for the D-III Continental Volleyball Conference in 2015.[6] Because Rutgers–Newark traditionally competed in the former University Division in men's volleyball before the NCAA created its current three-division setup in 1972, it had been allowed to award scholarships in that sport, making it one of only seven D-III schools then allowed to do so in any sport. As part of its D-III transition, it stopped awarding scholarships to new athletes in the 2011 season.
| School | Location | Team nickname | Primary conference | Joined EIVA[a] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Charleston | Charleston, West Virginia | Golden Eagles | Mountain East (Division II) |
2016 |
| George Mason University | Fairfax, Virginia[b] | Patriots | Atlantic 10 | 1977 |
| Harvard University | Cambridge, Massachusetts[c] | Crimson | Ivy League | 1982 |
| New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) | Newark, New Jersey | Highlanders | America East | 1977 |
| Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) | University Park, Pennsylvania | Nittany Lions | Big Ten | 1972 |
| Princeton University | Princeton, New Jersey | Tigers | Ivy League | 1977 |
| Sacred Heart University | Fairfield, Connecticut | Pioneers | MAAC | 2025[d] |
- ^ First season of EIVA competition, which takes place in the calendar year after a school formally joins.
- ^ The main George Mason campus has a Fairfax mailing address, but is in a part of unincorporated Fairfax County designated by the U.S. Census Bureau as George Mason, Virginia. Fairfax County encloses but does not include the city of Fairfax.
- ^ Although most of Harvard's athletic facilities and its athletic administration are in Boston, the volleyball arena is in Cambridge, which also hosts Harvard's overall administration and undergraduate campus.
- ^ Sacred Heart had been an EIVA member from 1993 to 2022.
Conference arenas
edit| School | Facility | Capacity |
|---|---|---|
| Charleston | H. Bernard Wehrle Sr. Athletic Arena Archived 2017-02-04 at the Wayback Machine | 1,551 |
| George Mason | Recreation Athletic Complex | 1,550 |
| Harvard | Malkin Athletic Center | 1,000 |
| NJIT | Wellness and Events Center (WEC) | 3,500 |
| Penn State | Rec Hall | 6,469 |
| Princeton | Dillon Gym Archived 2012-03-29 at the Wayback Machine | 1,500 |
| Sacred Heart | William H. Pitt Center | 2,000 |
Former members
edit- ^ First season of EIVA competition, which takes place in the calendar year after a school formally joins.
- ^ Dropped men's volleyball in 2003; closed in 2021.
- ^ a b c No longer sponsors men's volleyball.
- ^ Athletic program discontinued in 2023.
- ^ Southampton College closed in 2005; it has since become a campus of Stony Brook University.
References
edit- ^ "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.
- ^ "EIVA votes to add Charleston to conference beginning in 2016". Off the Block. February 20, 2015. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
- ^ "Transitioning Scarlet Raiders Join CVC" (Press release). Rutgers–Newark Athletics. March 13, 2014. Archived from the original on September 12, 2014. Retrieved September 11, 2014.