UCLA
Hawai'i vs. UCLA
UCLA Earns No. 2 Seed for 2019 NCAA Championship
April 28, 2019 | Beach Volleyball
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INDIANAPOLISย --ย UCLA (31-3) has earned a No. 2 seed for the 2019ย National Collegiate Beach Volleyball Championship as announced by the NCAA Women's Beach Volleyball Committee on Sunday afternoon.
The field was selected from the 75 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, LSU and Stetson. USC, Pepperdine, and UCLA made up the West Region selections, while Cal Polyย and Hawai'i were granted at-large bids.
USC earned the No. 1 seed, followed by UCLA and Florida State. Pepperdine secured the fourth seed while LSU was seeded fifth. At-large selections Cal Poly and Hawai'i grabbed the next two seeds in sixth and seventh, respectively. East Region selection Stetson as seeded eighth.
The 2019 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 3 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 3 with winning teams advancing in the elimination bracket and losing teams being eliminated from the tournament.
On Saturday, May 4 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 5 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 5. This year for the second consecutive year, the ESPN family of networks will be airing the entire NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship.
The Bruins, the defending NCAA Champions, will open play on Friday, May 3ย with the third dualย of the day at 9:00 a.m. PT/11:00 a.m. CTย against No. 7 Hawai'iย (26-9).
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 15 times, going 12-3 in those contests with the only losses coming to the Trojans. The Bruins are 2-3 against No. 1 USC, having lost the last three duals by a score of 3-2. UCLA is 2-0 against No. 3 Florida State and No. 5 LSU with a pair of 4-1 victories over both programs.ย UCLA also went 3-0 against No. 4ย Pepperdine, posting a 4-1 win in Honolulu and then a 5-0 win at Zuma Beach (March 6) and a 5-0 win at home. The win over the Waves in Malibu, Calif., was UCLA's first-ever win at Zuma Beach and the first time Pepperdine had ever been swept in program history. The Bruins also went 1-0 against No. 6 Cal Poly, sweeping the Mustangs in the season opener at home on Feb. 21. The Bruins faced No. 7 Hawai'i in the opening weekend of the season, winning 5-0 in the Outrigger Duke Kahanamokuย Beach Classic at Queen's Beach in Honolulu on Sunday, Feb. 24.ย The Bruins defeated No. 8 Stetson, 5-0, at the Surf 'N' Turf Invitational on March 29 in Miami, Fla.
The Bruins have the best record versusย the 2019 NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship field at 12-3, followed by USC at 11-3. Florida State is 6-5 and LSU is 5-5 against the field this season. Pepperdine rounds out the top five at 5-7.ย Cal Poly (3-6), Stetson (0-4), andย Hawai'i (0-9) round out the field.
The 2019 Beach Volleyball Championship will be held May 3-5 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.
