COLBY, Kan. – Two of the last four NJCAA Division 2 Volleyball National Champions will once again be in the National Tournament field as Cowley Community College and Johnson County Community College each earned an NJCAA Division 2 Volleyball Plains District Title this past Saturday inside Garvey Gymnasium on the campus of Friends University in Wichita, Kansas.

Johnson County defeated cross-town rival Kansas City Kansas Community College 3-1 in the Plains District "B" Championship to earn their 13th trip to the National Tournament in the past 17 seasons under head coach Jennifer Ei while Cowley will look to defend their 2023 NJCAA Division 2 Volleyball National Title after sweeping Allen in the Plains District "A" title match.

In the first match of the afternoon between the Cavaliers and Blue Devils, JCCC jumped out to a 2-0 lead with a first set victory 25-17 and second set victory 25-23 before seeing KCKCC force a fourth set with a 25-20 win. Things appeared destined to be heading to a decisive fifth set with Kansas City Kansas up 24-20 in the fourth before seeing the Cavaliers reel off five straight points to get to match point as the set ended up in a 29-27 victory for Johnson County to secure the title.

Things weren't quite as dramatic in the match between Cowley and Allen as the Tigers asserted their dominance against the only team in the league to win a set against Cowley in conference play this season as part of a 25-10, 25-14, 25-15 straight-sets win. Led by sophomore Laura Bonomi, the Tigers have now won 77 consecutive matches after going 41-0 last season to go along with their 36-0 record this season and has had just one match go to a fifth set this season.

The Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference will look to keep their recent stretch of success at the national tournament intact when the NJCAA Division 2 Volleyball National Tournament kicks off on Wednesday, November 20th with 20 teams taking part in the action inside Alliant Energy Powerhouse Arena in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. With Cowley winning the 2023 National Title and Johnson County winning the 2020 National Championship tournament, the KJCCC has had a team play for or win a National Title in five of the past seven seasons with four National Championships in that span (2017 – Coffeyville, 2018 – Coffeyville, 2020 – Johnson County, 2023 – Cowley).

Official seeding for the 2024 NJCAA Division 2 Volleyball Tournament is expected to be released on Wednesday, November 13th with 16 automatic qualifiers from district tournaments and four at-large berths awarded to make up the tournament field. In the last NJCAA Division 2 Volleyball top-25 poll released on November 4th, 12 of the 16 automatic qualification bids went to teams that were ranked including the top three teams in the poll (Cowley, Parkland, Kirkwood) along with two others ranked in the top 10 (Richard Bland, Johnson County) with four unranked teams (Central, Mesa, Milwaukee Area Tech, and Carl Sandburg) also punching their ticket to the National Tournament.