No. 8 Cal Faces No. 9 Long Beach State In First Round
BERKELEY – The California beach volleyball team is going dancing for the second straight year after earning an NCAA Championship berth Sunday morning. The No. 8 Golden Bears (28-9) received their highest seeding in school history and will face No. 9 Long Beach State (24-14) in the first round on Friday at 8 a.m. PT.
The Bears will make their second appearance in Gulf Shores, Alabama, after a historic regular season in which they broke the program’s all-time wins record and finished second at the Pac-12 Championship. The at-large bid was cemented last week after the Bears opened the conference tournament with three straight wins, including a 3-2 upset of reigning national champion No. 3 USC.
The Beach is red-hot, peaking at the perfect time with an undefeated run through the Big West Championship that resulted in an automatic bid to the NCAA Championship. LBSU only lost three sets in four matches during the tournament and rides a five-match win streak into Gulf Shores Public Beach.
On the other half of the bracket lies the sole play-in match of the tournament between UT Martin and Texas A&M Corpus Christi. The winner of that match will face No. 1 UCLA.
The 17-team, single-elimination tournament will be televised on the ESPN family of networks. ESPNU will provide the coverage for Friday’s opening round with Saturday’s matches airing on ESPN2 and Sunday’s final airing on ESPN.
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