UCLA top seed in NCAA men’s volleyball tourney; UCI gets other at-large bid

Defending-champion UCLA got the top seed Sunday when the NCAA’s National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship bracket was announced.

Long Beach State is No. 2, Grand Canyon — the team that beat UCLA in the MPSF title match — is No. 3, followed by UC Irvine and Penn State.

And those two will play what will no doubt be the showcase match of the quarterfinals.

Play begins Tuesday, April 30, with quarterfinals at Long Beach State’s Walter Pyramid. Those matches can only be seen on NCAA.com.

UCLA, which won the MPSF regular season and has the strongest numbers in all the factors that go into seeding consideration, got one of two at-large bids and plays eighth-seeded Fort Valley State, the first SIAC team in the field.

“I understand how the criteria work and why we’re No. 1,” UCLA coach John Speraw said, “but I know it doesn’t really matter at this point because there are a number of teams that are capable of winning it. I think it will be a really exciting week of volleyball with some teams that are playing great at the end of the year.”

It’s a field that is finally expanded to eight teams, up one from the past three years, as the SIAC gained an automatic bid.

Long Beach State, which won the Big West, plays seventh-seeded Belmont Abbey, which won the Conference Carolinas automatic bid. 

GCU, which got the MPSF automatic, plays sixth-seeded Ohio State, which won the MIVA and its bid.

UC Irvine lost to Long Beach State in the Big West final and got the other at-large, while Penn State dominated the EIVA this season.

“I think the two representatives from the Big West seem to be playing really good volleyball,” Speraw said. “I’ve been really impressed with both of them. And Penn State, the last time we played them, they took us five. So I have a ton of respect for everybody. And Grand Canyon and Ohio State, we lost to them earlier in the year. This is just a group of teams where everyone’s got a shot.”

The winners advance to the semifinals Thursday, May 2, and the championship match is Saturday, May 4.

“It’s always nice to play in the championship and it’s always nice to win your way into the championship throug the AQ,” said Long Beach State coach Alan Knipe, who team won it all in 2018 and 2019 and was the favorite in 2020 when the season was cancled. Long Beach lost in the 2022 final to Hawai’i. 

“We’ve had,…