NCAA volleyball: USC, Hawai’i, LMU win beach automatic bids; men’s championship update
Once again it came down to USC vs. UCLA.
Top-seeded USC came through the contenders bracket Friday to beat third-seeded Stanford and then second-seeded UCLA to win the final Pac-12 Championship.
Hawai’i beat Long Beach State to win the Big West.
Loyola Marymount beat Pepperdine and won the West Coast Conference.
We also have recaps of the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association, where Florida State is into the title match; Conference USA, where TCU is in the final; the Sun Belt, where Georgia State is in the championship match; the ASUN, where North Florida is in the title match; and the Ohio Valley, where Chattanooga awaits the UT Martin-Lindenwood winner. Texas A&M Corpus Christi won the Southland Conference title last Sunday and the automatic bid that goes with it.
The NCAA’s National Collegiate Beach Championship, a 17-team, single-elimination tournament, is May 3-5 in Gulf Shores, Alabama.
The NCAA field will be announced at 11 a.m. Eastern Sunday on NCAA. com.
We also have an NCAA men’s volleyball update in this report.
NCAA beach
PAC-12: Top-seeded USC on Friday was sent to the contenders bracket by second-seeded UCLA, but beat third-seeded Stanford and then topped the arch-rival Bruins in the title dual to win the final Pac-12 Championship.
From the USC news release:
TEMPE, Ariz. – The top-seeded USC beach volleyball team (33-5) emerged from the contender’s bracket with a 3-1 win over No. 3 Stanford (31-5) and a 3-0 victory over second-seeded UCLA (32-6) to claim its fifth Pac-12 Championship at the Sun Devil Beach Volleyball Facility on Friday, April 26. With the league crown, the Trojans also earn the Pac-12’s automatic berth into next week’s NCAA Championship.
The Women of Troy collected the program’s fifth Pac-12 title (2016, ’17, ’19, ’22) and the second under fifth-year head coach Dain Blanton. USC goes to 28-8 in duals at the Pac-12 Championship with a 12-2 mark in the state of Arizona. The Trojans also improved to 40-2 all-time in the Copper State and rose to 151-18 in duals when they are ranked No. 1.
Click here for the complete USC recap and boxscores and here for the Pac-12 video recap.
BIG WEST: Hawai’i won the league’s automatic bid.
From the Hawai’i news release:
LONG BEACH, Cailf. — The University of Hawai’i beach volleyball team claimed the Big West Championship with a pair of wins Friday on the campus of Long Beach City College. The Rainbow Wahine defeated UC Davis, 3-0, in the semifinals before edging host Long Beach State, 3-2, in a dramatic title match.
It marked UH’s fourth title in eight seasons of Big West beach volleyball and its first since 2018. In the process the BeachBows (24-11) also earned the conference’s automatic bid to next week’s NCAA Championships in Gulf Shores, Ala. UH will enter the NCAAs riding a season-long eight-match win streak after going a perfect 4-0 during the Big West Championship.
The No. 3 seed Rainbow Wahine cruised past UC Davis (18-17) to advance to the tournament finals for the seventh time in eight tries. There they met No. 2 seed LBSU who defeated CSUN and upset top-seeded Cal Poly to earn its spot in the finals. It would also be a rematch of Friday’s pool play action in which the ‘Bows defeated the Beach 4-1.
Click here for the complete Hawai’i recap and boxscores and here for the Big West recap.
WEST COAST: Loyola Marymount won the WCC’s automatic bid.
From LMU:
SANTA MONICA, Calif. – LMU beach volleyball defeated Pepperdine twice on Friday to win the 2024 West Coast Conference Tournament Championship for a record fifth-consecutive time. The Lions defeated the Waves, 4-1, in the morning match to earn their place in the championship game.
Click here for the entire LMU recap and here for the WCC story.
CCSA: Florida State awaits the winner of South Carolina vs. LSU. Click here for the FSU recap and boxscores and here for the CCSA recap.
CONFERENCE USA: TCU awaits the winner of Florida Atlantic and Tulane. Click here for the TCU recap and boxscores and here for the Conference USA recap.
SUN BELT: Georgia State had to go five to get past Coastal Carolina and into the final, where it awaits the Coastal-UNC Wilmington match. Click here for the Sun Belt recap and boxscores.
ASUN: Second-seeded Stetson and third-seeded FGCU play to face top-seeded North Florida.
Click here for the ASUN recap.
OHIO VALLEY: Second-seeded Chattanooga awaits the winner between top-seeded UT Martin and No. 3 Lindenwood. Click here for the Ohio Valley Conference recap.
NCAA men
The NCAA’s National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship begins Tuesday in Long Beach, California with four quarterfinal matches at The Pyramid, all of which can be seen only on NCAA.com:
11 a.m. Pacific — No. 1 UCLA (24-5) vs. No. 8 Fort Valley State (17-8)
1:30 p.m. Pacific — No. 4 UC Irvine (19-10) vs. No. 5 Penn State (23-6)
5 p.m. Pacific — No. 2 Long Beach State (25-2) vs. No. 7 Belmont Abbey (21-4)
7:30 p.m. Pacific — No. 3 Grand Canyon (25-4) vs. No. 6 Ohio State (22-8)
The semifinals are Thursday and the final on Saturday.
Regular-season matchups:
UCLA of the MPSF swept visiting Fort Valley State 25-18, 25-12, 25-17 to open the season.
UCI of the. Big West and Penn State of the EIVA did not play this season, but on March 5, 2023 Penn State won at UCI 32-34, 25-23, 18-25, 25-22, 15-11 that took three hours.
Long Beach State of the Big West has never played Belmont Abbey of Conference Carolinas.
Grand Canyon of the MPSF has not played the MIVA’s Ohio State.
For more on the teams:
Postseason honors
We’ve had some of these previously, but here they are in one place.
BIG WEST: The player of the year is UCI’s Hilir Henno, the top freshman Hawai’i setter Tread Rosenthal and the coach is Long Beach’s Alan Knipe. Click here for more from the Big West.
CONFERENCE CAROLINAS: Belmont Abbey’s Matthew Staskunas if the offensive POY, Emmanuel’s Nicklas Eichenberger was the defensive honoree, Belmont Abbey’s Joseph Morris is the top freshman and Derek Sullivan of Belmont Abbey is the coach of year. Click here for more from Conference Carolinas.
ECC: The player of the year in the first-year, four-team league is Kyran Versteegen of St. Thomas Aquinas. The top libero is Moises Jiminez of Roberts Wesleyan, the setter is STA’s Joaquin La Jara, the rookie of the year is Dominican’s Phinehas Wiley and the co-coaches are Mike Dedee of Roberts Wesleyan and Patrick Ernst of Dominican.
EIVA: Penn State’s John Kerr is the player of the year and his coach, Mark Pavlik, is the coach of the year for the 10th time in his 30 years. Tristan Whitfield of Princeton is the top freshman. Click here for more from the EIVA.
MIVA: Parker Van Buren of Loyola Chicago is the player of the year, teammate Daniel Fabikovic is the newcomer of the year, and the top coach is Donan Cruz of Ball State. Click here for more from the MIVA.
MPSF: The player of the year is UCLA’s Merrick McHenry and the top freshman is Pepperdine’s Ethan Watson. Read about them here.
The coach of the year is GCU’s Matt Werle. Read more here.
NEC: Nathan Zini of Saint Francis U is the player of the year, teammate Peyton Blain is the top defensive player, and Daemen’s Ondrej Arabascz is the rookie of the year. The coach of the year is SFU’s Mike Rumbaugh. Click here to read more from the NEC.
SIAC: The coach of the year is Fort Valley State’s Larry Wrather and FVSU’s Jaxon Hicks is the player of the year. The top libero is KJ Harrison of Central State, the top setter is Kenyon Haynes of Edward Waters, and Kentucky State’s Malachi Allen is the freshman of the year. Click here for more from the SIAC.
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