Conference-by-conference breakdown as NCAA beach volleyball heads into postseason

In the penultimate week of the collegiate beach volleyball season, our report features a conference-by-conference breakdown of the tournaments that will determine the automatic qualifiers in the NCAA’s National Collegiate Beach Championship, a 17-team, single-elimination tournament May 3-5 in Gulf Shores, Alabama.
Equally important, we dissect the chances of the logical contenders for the eight at-large bids. 
The bracket will be announced on NCAA.com at 11 a.m. Eastern Sunday, April 28.

Pac-12

Four programs from the last hurrah of the “Conference of Champions” seemingly are locked into bids.

As in every season in which the NCAA has sanctioned a national tournament, the title likely will run through the stacked Pac-12.

USC (29-4) has its sights set on a fourth consecutive NCAA crown. Coach Dain Blanton’s Women of Troy enter the Pac 12 tournament, Wednesday through Friday in the desert on Arizona State’s campus courts, as the No. 1-ranked team in the weekly AVCA coaches poll and the top seed among the nine gathered in Tempe.

No. 2 UCLA (29-5) is the defending Pac-12 tournament champion and last season’s national runner-up. The Bruins are seeded second and have split four duals with archrival USC.

By now every fan of collegiate beach volleyball should be able to recite this sentence by heart: USC and UCLA are the only programs to win national titles since the sport received sanction by the NCAA in 2016.

No. 3 Stanford (28-3) seems the most likely candidate to end that trend. The Cardinal have gone 1-1 against USC and 2-1 against UCLA and their only other setback came in Tempe against Arizona State. Stanford’s lineup from the 1s through the 5s has been rock-solid, but Coach Andrew Fuller typically has four freshmen among his 10 starters. That inexperience might show against the far more battle-tested Trojans and Bruins.

Seeded fourth in the double-elimination (except for the final) competition behind Stanford is No. 8 Cal (20-11). The Golden Bears might have double-digit losses, but they came against USC, UCLA (twice), Stanford (twice), Cal Poly (twice), Florida State, TCU, LSU and Washington. Cal’s name will be called by the committee when the NCAA selection show streams Sunday (11 a.m. Eastern) on ncaa.com.

Nine conference tournament winners will be automatic qualifiers. The burning question heading into Selection Sunday is: How many of the remaining eight at-large bids will be consumed by the Pac-12? Last year, that number was three. This time, four seems highly possible and five would not be totally out of the question.

A width of a playing card could separate the difference in the resumes of the next two in line – fifth-seeded Washington (19-13), ranked 12th, and No. 13 Arizona State (19-7), the six seed playing on home sand and acclimatized to desert conditions. Washington and Arizona State split during the regular season, the Huskies winning 3-2 at home in Seattle and the Sun Devils taking a 3-2 victory on neutral ground in Fort Worth, Texas.

An “uno-dos-adios” exit or a deep run by either team in the Pac-12 tournament could make or break their chances for a bid.

Arizona State has been among the beach season’s most compelling storylines as Coach Kristen Rohr moved from Grand Canyon in Phoenix to Tempe. The revamped Sun Devils made a significant improvement from 11-13.

“We are so excited about being home in our sand for (the conference tournament),” Rohr told VBM. “The team already has done so much in our first year of the new era of ASU beach. We want to show that we are a top program in the league and finish off on a strong note looking to (the NCAA tourney).

“My team and Washington are very evenly matched and went 1-1 against each other. Having a good showing at PACs is really important for us as a team and also for postseason championship opportunities,’ she added. “If you look at the teams below us, we have had better wins and have beaten those people, so I would think we have a good shot (at a bid).”

Completing the Pac-12 field are seventh-seeded Arizona (20-10 and ranked 18th nationally), eight seed Utah (18-14) and ninth-seeded Oregon (5-23). All of the action from the conference tournament will air across Pac-12 Networks.

Big West

The Big West holds three of the first 11 positions in the AVCA poll, but will its bubble blow big enough to hold them all?

No. 5 Cal Poly (27-5) has put together a turnaround season for the ages, with a resume that suggests the Mustangs could be the team to break USC’s and UCLA’s stranglehold on the NCAA title, if Stanford doesn’t.

Here are the losses taken by Coach Todd Rogers’ squad: USC 3-2, UCLA 4-1 and 3-2, Long Beach State 3-2 and Florida State 3-2. The Mustangs have topped TCU, Cal (twice), Long Beach State, Loyola Marymount, Hawaii, Florida International, Stetson and Grand Canyon.

Top-seeded Cal Poly won’t have to sweat out a bid during the Big West tournament Friday and Saturday at Long Beach Community College in Southern California. 

Second seed Long Beach State (25-7), ranked seventh nationally, probably doesn’t, either, based on a stellar body of work that includes victories over Cal Poly, Loyola Marymount, Washington, Arizona State, FIU, Georgia State, Stetson and GCU.

However, No. 11 Hawaii (20-11), the Big West’s third seed, might be in a more precarious position, even with LSU (during the high-profile East Meets West) and Long Beach State prominent in the “W” column, and no red-flag defeats.

Coach Evan Silberstein is confident his Rainbow Wahine have what it takes to catch the selection committee’s eye, even if that means three Big West squads among the 17 in the NCAAs.

“We believe our conference is one of the strongest in NCAA beach volleyball, evidenced by” the national rankings,” Silberstein told VBM. “Our season has been all about committing to our process and progressing as a program from week to week with a clear eye on the postseason as our time to peak.

“We like what we have done so far this year. We know we can play with anyone and now is our time to go out and prove it.“

The league will use a new format, with its seven teams split into pools of four and three. One team will be eliminated on the first day. The top three from each pool will advance to single-elimination knockout rounds. The second- and third-place finishers will cross over in two quarterfinal duals on Saturday, with the winners advancing to the semifinals against the top finishers from each pool.

Cal Poly, fourth-seeded Cal Davis and five seed Cal State Northridge are in one round-robin pool. Long Beach State, Hawaii, sixth-seeded Cal State Bakersfield and seven seed Sacramento State are in the other, which will see 2 facing 7 and 3 meeting 6, with the winners squaring off for first and second, and the losers for third and fourth.

Coastal Collegiate Sports Association

The CCSA might be down to four teams, but the league held on to its automatic qualifier courtesy of an NCAA waiver. Its tournament Friday and Saturday at John Hunt Park in Huntsville, Alabama, will provide a dilemma for the selection committee only if No. 4 Florida State (27-7), the top seed, or No. 10 LSU (24-9), seeded third, don’t win the title.

The Seminoles are 0-5 against Pac-12 powers USC, UCLA and Stanford, but a victory over Cal Poly in the Center of Effort should have sealed the deal on an NCAA bid. FSU under Brooke Niles, the CCSA coach of the year, has played in every national championship held by the NCAA.

LSU’s fortunes took a dramatic uptick in its landmark Death Volley Invitational when the Bayou Bengals stunned USC. Since then, LSU is 11-2 and likely has done enough to project as an at-large selection. Its 2s tandem of senior Reilly Allred and sophomore Parker Bracken were honored as the CCSA’s pair of the year.

No. 17 Grand Canyon (14-17), seeded second, has fallen out of at-large consideration even though all of its losses have been to ranked teams. CCSA freshman of the year Julia Waugh helped fourth-seeded South Carolina (18-14) bounce in and out of the AVCA Top 20. But the Gamecocks’s best victory came against Stetson and they have dropped five of their last seven.

The CCSA tournament will be covered by the ESPN+ subscription streaming service.

Conference USA

Sixth-ranked TCU (25-7), in its C-USA debut, seemingly has a spot in the NCAA draw wrapped up. Over the last month, the Horned Frogs have beaten Long Beach State, Hawaii (twice), Cal, Washington and Arizona State, mitigating their losses to USC (three times), UCLA, Stanford (twice) and Cal Poly.

If the Horned Frogs move through the conference tournament as expected, the remaining question is: Have any of the other eight programs accomplished enough to land an at-large berth?

No. 14 Florida International (20-9) would seem to have a slippery seat on the bubble, particularly since losses to Arizona State and Washington (both by 4-1 counts), not to mention a 3-2 stumble against Florida Gulf Coast, could factor heavily into the committee’s calculations.

A deep run in the C-USA tournament on Thursday through Saturday at the Sugar Beach complex in Youngsville, Louisiana, might work wonders for second-seeded FIU’s odds of returning to the NCAAs. The Panthers can claim a significant “W” over Loyola Marymount and come into the tourney on a roll with victories over UAB, Tulane, South Carolina, Stetson and Florida Atlantic.

Coach Steve Grotowski’s ambitious scheduling might have put third seed Florida Atlantic, ranked No. 19 despite a 16-17 record, behind the 8-ball. The Sandy Owls ran out of steam, dropping four of their last five, during a slate that included setbacks against USC (twice), UCLA, Stanford, FSU, Cal, TCU, Loyola Marymount, Arizona State and Sunshine State rival FIU (twice).

C-USA enjoys solid depth. Fourth-seeded Alabama-Birmingham is 18-13 and beat Tulane, North Alabama, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Tampa, the back-to-back Division-II national champions. Tulane (5) is 22-12 and took care of business against the teams it should have handled. Texas-El Paso (6) checks in at 12-11. Missouri State (7) went 24-5 and have won nine in a row while playing a mostly off-Broadway schedule.

Debut program Tarleton State is seeded eighth and winless Jacksonville State ninth.

The C-USA event will be double-elimination until the final. Its duals on Friday and Saturday will be streamed live on ESPN+.

West Coast Conference

Loyola Marymount (24-13) is ranked ninth in the AVCA poll and likely has done enough while playing a killer schedule to warrant serious consideration for an at-large bid in the unlikely event it fails to advance out of the WCC. The top-seeded Lions’ resume includes victories over UCLA, Florida State, Hawaii, Washington, Florida International, Grand Canyon (twice), Georgia State, Stetson, Arizona and Florida Atlantic.

Pepperdine (19-14) is seeded second in the seven-team WCC event at Ocean Park Beach in Santa Monica, California, which will be double-elimination until the title dual. The Waves were 0-2 against LMU in the regular season.

Saint Mary’s (17-14) holds the No. 3 seed, followed by (in order) Santa Clara, San Francisco, Portland and winless Pacific. The first three WCC duals on Friday will be shown on ESPN+, with the final (scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Eastern) aired on cable ESPNU.

Sun Belt Conference

No. 15 Georgia State (22-12) is the resounding favorite to return to the NCAA Championship out of the Sun Belt in the league’s second year of sanctioning the sport. The Sandy Panthers played their typical Who’s Who gantlet of foes in such road events as the Tampa Invitational, the East Meets West and the Alki Beach Invitational in Washington.

Georgia State is the top seed and the only ranked team among the eight that will gather at John Hunt Park in Huntsville on Thursday through Sunday to contest the double-elimination (until the final) Sun Belt tournament. With ranked victories over LSU, Washington, Stetson and Grand Canyon, the Panthers shouldn’t be dismissed as a bottom-half-of-the-draw throwout if they make it to the NCAAs.

Their main threats in the Sun Belt figure to be second-seeded North Carolina-Wilmington (19-10) and third seed Coastal Carolina (24-8), but neither scheduled as tough as Georgia State. The Seahawks and Chanticleers split their two duals in the regular season.

The other seeds are College of Charleston (4), Mercer (5), Southern Mississippi (6), Louisiana-Monroe (7) and Stephen F. Austin (8) and none were better than .500. ESPN+ will stream all of the Sun Belt duals live.

Atlantic Sun

The easy route in the ASUN tournament (Wednesday through Saturday) would be to rubber-stamp an automatic bid for defending champ Stetson (19-10). The Hatters have been ranked all season, checking in at No. 16 in the latest AVCA poll, and will enjoy home-sand advantage on their campus courts in DeLand, Florida. Stetson again played a daunting coast-to-coast schedule and holds victories over ranked opponents Arizona, Georgia State, GCU and FAU.

But wait, the Hatters are not the top seed in the eight-team competition, which will feature double-elimination until the title dual. That distinction belongs to North Florida (20-11), which broke into the AVCA poll tied for 20th. The Ospreys out of Jacksonville defeated South Carolina in March, and they put an exclamation point on the regular season by knocking off Florida Atlantic 4-1 and Stetson 3-2 in DeLand last weekend.

The Hatters hold the No. 2 seed, but in a tournament that could see multiple surprises, solid cases also can be made for third-seeded Florida Gulf Coast (14-18) and No. 4 seed North Alabama (21-11).

The Eagles from sunny Fort Myers are battle tested from a challenging slate that saw them lose to Florida State (twice), TCU (twice), Arizona State, Washington, LSU, FIU, FAU (three times), Stetson (three times) and Tampa. However, Gulf Coast defeated FIU, Georgia State (in Atlanta), Tampa and Tulane, and split duals against North Florida in Jacksonville, both by 3-2 counts. FGCU boasts the ASUN pair of the year in Shelby Beisner and Trinity Rosales, and the league freshman of the year, Emma Soncrant.

North Alabama’s schedule was lighter on ranked foes, but the Lions from Florence landed two of the five pairs on the ASUN all-conference first team and Kaleb VanDePerre was its coach of the year. Their noteworthy victories included Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Alabama-Birmingham, North Carolina-Wilmington and Nebraska.

The TruVolley rankings (based on statistics) has North Florida 15th, Stetson 19th, FGCU 21st and North Alabama 23rd.

Rounding out the field are Eastern Kentucky (seeded fifth), Jacksonville (6), Central Arkansas (7) and Austin Peay (8). All duals in the ASUN event from Stetson’s Cooper Beach venue will be streamed on ESPN+.

Ohio Valley Conference

The six-team OVC tournament Thursday through Sunday in Morehead, Kentucky, will be double-elimination until the final and looks to be a two-horse race.

Two-time defending champion Tennessee-Martin (15-4) is the No. 1 seed with league regular-season co-champion Tennessee-Chattanooga (16-9) seeded second. The Skyhawks and Mocs each went 9-1 in the OVC and split their season series, both prevailing on home sand, with UT Martin winning 4-1 and Chattanooga 3-2.

TruVolley put the Mocs at No. 32 and the Skyhawks at 47. The most noteworthy victory by Chattanooga came over North Alabama by a 3-2 score, while UT Martin lost to those Lions 4-1. 

Lindenwood (12-8, No. 70 on TruVolley) is the third seed, followed by host Morehead State, Tennessee Tech and Eastern Illinois. ESPN+ will cover the OVC event.

Southland Conference

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi became the first team to qualify for the NCAA Championship when it won the Southland tournament last weekend at the Third Coast venue in Houston. The Islanders (28-9) shook off a 3-2 loss to Boise State in the winners-bracket semifinals, bouncing back with a 3-1 victory over Houston Christian (13-23) in the semifinal and nipping the Broncos (31-12) in the title dual 3-2.

Elevated from 2s to 1s for the conference tournament, freshman Cassie Dodd and super senior Chloe Tome clinched the Islanders’ third consecutive league title with a three-set triumph (15-7 in the third) over Marlayna Bullington and Sierra Land, the Southland’s pair of the year. Dodd, the league’s freshman of the year, and Tome were tabbed as the national pair of the week by the AVCA.

Another pivotal victory came at the 2s when Madison Morrow and Kristen Bobay (who had gone 16-13 on the No. 1 court during the season) ground out a three-setter over Emilia Guerra-Acuna and Ava Anderson, winning the first set 23-21 and the tiebreaker 16-14.

Conventional wisdom might automatically slot the Islanders as the No. 16 seed in the play-in dual against the OVC champion, but that might be selling their accomplishments short. They broke into the AVCA Top 20 for three weeks, dropped out, but are back in the poll, tied for the 20th spot. If an unranked dark horse should emerge with an automatic bid from the Sun Belt, ASUN or WCC, TAMUCC’s resume could merit a higher seed. The Islanders’ Gayle Stammer picked up her third consecutive Southland coach-of-the-year award.