KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The NAIA released the pool play schedule for the 24 teams that qualified for the NAIA Volleyball National Championship. The Argos (21-2, 18-2) will take on Viterbo (Wis.) on Tuesday, April 27 at 2:00 p.m. MTN and top-seeded Jamestown at 9:30 a.m. MTN on Wednesday, April 28. Both games will take place in Sioux City, Iowa. 

"When you get down to the final 24 teams I don't know if there is a good draw in the bunch," head coach Arunas Duda said. "We have two matches in pool play that I think could go the distance. We're at the point where we're playing really good volleyball. I'm pretty excited with where we are. We're going to Iowa. I'm excited to see how we match up with the rest of the country."

The tournament format is a little different this year compared to years past. 48 teams qualified for the National Tournament, with every team having to play an opening round game on the higher seed's campus. The 24 winners of those games will travel to Sioux City, where they will be split into eight pools of three teams each. Each team will be guaranteed two games during pool play, with the winner of the eight pools playing a single elimination tournament beginning on April 29.

The Argos advanced to pool play by defeating Olivet Nazarene (Ill.) in three sets in the Opening Round of the National Tournament on Saturday. 

The Argos will first take on the Viterbo (Wis.). The conference championship winner of the North Star Athletic Association, the V-Hawks (14-7, 11-4) defeated Madonna (Mich.) in straight sets in the Opening Round.

"I don't know much about them," Duda said. "I'm sure they're going to be a force to be reckoned with. I'm sure it's going to be a tough matchup."

The overall top seed in the tournament awaits the Argos on the second day. The Jimmies (27-1, 15-1) have lost only one game so far on the season. It's the third season in a row that Argos have drawn the overall top seed in the tournament in pool play.

"I remember watching them at the National Tournament last year," Duda said. "I remember being really impressed, not just with the way they played but with how hard they played. They're very well-coached. They have some really good players. They're a very gritty team."

Both teams however have to play against the Argos, who are one of the hottest teams in the country at the moment. The Argos are currently on a 19-game winning streak, with their last loss coming on February 6 to Rocky Mountain College, who also qualified for the National Tournament.

"What we have going for us is that we play such a different style from everyone," Duda said. "Especially in a tournament style, we're hard to prepare for and it's hard to adjust to that right away."

This is the third straight National Tournament appearance for the University of Providence. In the past two seasons, they've had a two week break between the Frontier Conference Tournament and the beginning of the NAIA Tournament, which the coaching staff has mainly used to prioritize rest. With the opening round game, the coaching staff wants to maintain the normal practice schedule so that the team doesn't miss a beat. 

"We're going to go pretty hard this week," Duda said. "I think we need to prepare at a higher level this next week. We're going to go pretty hard and get after this week so that we're ready for top notch competition."

A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the Argos would take on Bellevue in the first round matchup. The story has been corrected.