Music City will play host to NCAA men’s volleyball for the first time next January when the inaugural Grow the Game Challenge comes to Nashville.

The University of Hawaii, coming off May’s final-four appearance, headlines the 11-team field in the three-day competition Jan. 12-14 at Lipscomb University. The Rainbow Warriors open with Division II Lincoln Memorial out of the Independent Volleyball Association, one of 13 matches that will be played at Allen Arena. The Railsplitters went 10-17 in their inaugural season last spring.

With Hawaii moving to the Big West next season, “we have a much larger portion of our schedule to fill with nonconference matches,” Warriors coach Charlie Wade said. “This tournament will give us three quality neutral-site matches and, with 11 teams involved, it will allow us an opportunity to see some other teams we have never seen or don’t see very often.”

Hawaii also will play Barton of Conference Carolinas on Jan. 13 and new Mountain Pacific Sports Federation member Grand Canyon on Jan. 14. Barton, the defending Conference Carolinas champion, lost to BYU in the NCAA play-in match last May at Ohio State.

All five conferences that sponsor men’s Division I-II volleyball are represented in the tournament coordinated by Off The Block. Also in the field are three other Conference Carolinas teams (Erskine, Limestone and North Greenville), two from the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (Charleston and Sacred Heart) and two from the Midwest Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (Lindenwood and McKendree).

“I really like the idea of helping to grow the game in a part of the country that traditionally has not seen a lot of men’s volleyball,” Wade said.

Hawaii, which finished 27-6 last year, opens the season at the Stan Sheriff Center, hosting USC, Juniata and Stevens Institute on Jan. 3-5.