Southern New Hampshire University

The Southern New Hampshire University Penmen will be invading Seattle for the 2022 Division II National Championships Festival, as the women's volleyball and women's cross country teams, as well as men's cross country individual, Jacob Logan, have all advanced to compete for a national title.

@snhupenmen Seattle 2022 Instagram Highlight

Women's volleyball earned its first ever NCAA Tournament berth as the East Region's 6 seed and went 3-0 in Springfield, Mass., to claim the regional crown and berth to the Division II National Championship. It marks the first regional title in volleyball for any New Hampshire school across all three NCAA divisions. The Penmen, who have a set a new single-season program record with 19 wins, breaking the 1986 team's record of 18, are seeded eighth in Seattle and will open up play against top-seeded and third-ranked Concordia University, St. Paul on Thursday, Dec. 1 at 7:30 p.m. PST (10:30 p.m. EST). The matches will take place at Seattle Pacific University's Royal Brougham Pavilion.  
 

Women's cross country advanced to the NCAA National Championship for the second time by winning their first NCAA East Regional Championship in program history, beating out 18 other teams in Bethpage, N.Y. Graduate student Ashley Corcoran (East Longmeadow, Mass.) led the way by winning the race with a time of 21:55.40. Junior Kaitlyn O'Rourke (Braintree, Mass.) ran a 22:27.20 to finish third, while classmate Kelsey Seamans (Methuen, Mass.) wound up seventh in 22:37.90. The Penmen also captured the program's first NE10 Championship earlier this season.

The men finished fifth, overall, to just miss out on making it to Seattle as a team, but graduate student Jacob Logan (Norwood, Mass.) finished second in a time of 31:41.10 to punch his ticket to nationals as an individual.

The NCAA National Championship will take place Friday, Dec. 2 at Chambers Creek Regional Park in University Place, Wash. Logan will run at 10 a.m. PST (1 p.m. EST), while the women will go off at 11:15 a.m. PST (2:15 p.m. EST).

Seattle Pacific University Athletics is proud to host the NCAA DII Fall Festival. It takes place from Dec. 1-3 at four locations. Interbay Soccer Stadium hosts men's and women's soccer championships. Royal Brougham Pavilion hosts women's volleyball. Men's and women's cross-country championships take place at Chambers Creek Regional Park. Renton Memorial Stadium is the site for this year's women's field hockey championships.
 

Division II is the only NCAA division that conducts "National Championships Festivals," Olympic-style events in which several national championships are held at a single site over several days.

The concept was developed in the early 2000s to provide student-athletes with a championship experience that exceeds what they usually would enjoy in their conference or NCAA postseason events.

The festival idea was a response from then-NCAA President Cedric W. Dempsey, who in 2000 challenged each of the three divisions to create more awareness and excitement around the NCAA championships program, particularly for sports that don't regularly experience the limelight of a select few.

Division II's membership answered the call, staging the first festival in the spring of 2004 in Orlando. Since then, the festival has maintained its standing as an enhanced championships experience and a unique identifier for the Division II brand.