UCLA
Florida International vs. UCLA
UCLA Earns Top Seed for 2018 NCAA Championship
April 29, 2018 | Beach Volleyball
The Bruins will take on #8 FIU in the opening round on May 4 at 7:00 a.m. PT/10:00 a.m. ET in Gulf Shores, Ala., on ESPNU.
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INDIANAPOLISย -- Top-ranked UCLA (35-3) has earned the top seed for the first time in program history for the 2018 National Collegiate Beach Volleyball Championship as announced by the NCAA Women's Beach Volleyball Committee on Sunday afternoon.
The field was selected from the 69 NCAA institutions sponsoring the sport of beach volleyball. Three teams were selected from the East Region and three teams were selected from the West Region. The remaining two teams were selected at-large from the teams across the country. All eight teams were then seeded.
The finalists selected from the East Region include: Florida State, FIU and South Carolina. Pepperdine, Hawai'i and UCLA made up the West Region selections, while USC and LSU were granted at-large bids.
UCLA earned the No. 1 seed, followed by the West Region securing the next two seeds in No. 2 Pepperdine and No. 3 Hawai'i. Florida State secured the fourth seed while at-large selection USC earned the fifth seed. Sixth-seeded South Carolina was followed by two more teams out of the East Region inย No. 7 LSU and No. 8 FIU.
The 2018 NCAA Women's Beach Volleyball Championship will be held at Gulf Shores Public Beach in Gulf Shores, Ala. The first and second round of the national championship tournament will be conducted on Friday, May 4 with winning teams advancing in the championship bracket and losing teams moving to the elimination bracket. The first round of the elimination bracket will also be conducted Friday, May 4 with winning teams advancing in the elimination bracket and losing teams being eliminated from the tournament.
On Saturday, May 5 the second and third round of the elimination bracket will be conducted with winning teams advancing in the elimination bracket and losing teams being eliminated from the tournament. These will be followed by the third round match of the championship bracket with winning team advancing to the national championship match and losing team moving to the elimination bracket.
On Sunday, May 6 the final match of the elimination bracket will be conducted with winning team advancing to the Championship match and losing team being eliminated from the tournament. The National Championship match will then be conducted on Sunday, May 6. This year for the first time, the ESPN family of networks will be airing the entire NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship.
UCLA opens play on Friday, May 4 with the first match of the day at 7:00 a.m. PT/10:00 a.m. ET against No. 8 FIU (22-10). The Bruins have faced the Panthers twice already, defeating FIU 3-2 on a rain-soaked day at the Manhattan Beach Pier in the East Meets West Challenge on March 10. Then on spring break, the Bruins traveled to Miami, Fla., to take part in FIU'sย Surf 'N' Turf Invitational and beat the Panthers 5-0 on March 30.
With arguablyย the toughest strength of scheduleย in the country, the Bruins have already faced all seven of the other teams in the NCAA Championship field a total of 17 times, going 14-3 in those contests, including winning their last 11 matchups against the field. The Bruins are 2-1 against No. 2 Pepperdine with the lone loss coming at Pepperdineย (March 3). The Bruins are 2-1 against No. 3 Hawai'i with the lone loss coming at Hawai'i (Feb. 24). UCLA is 2-0 against No. 4 Florida State with a win in Manhattan Beach, Calif., and in Miami, Fla. UCLA is 4-1 against No. 5 USC with the only loss coming at Pepperdine (March 3). The Bruins have beaten the Trojans three straight times, including twice in one day at the Pac-12 Beach Volleyball Championship. The Bruins defeated No. 6 South Carolina, 5-0, at the Surf 'N' Turf Invitational on March 31. UCLA also defeated No. 7 LSU, 4-1,ย at the East Meets West Challenge on March 10.
Pepperdine enters the 2018 NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship with a 12-2 record against the tournament field. Hawai'i is 6-3 while Florida State has gone 7-5. USC is 3-11 on the year against the tournament field while South Carolina (2-6), LSU (2-9) and FIU (1-8) round out the field.
The 2018 Beach Volleyball Championship will be held May 4-6 in Gulf Shores, Ala. Tickets are availableย here.
The championship matches will be aired on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU. The full broadcast schedule is availableย here.
