NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship

For Philippines NCAA championship, see NCAA (Philippines) Beach Volleyball Championship.
NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship
Sport College beach volleyball
Founded 2016
No. of teams 8
Country  United States
Most recent
champion(s)
USC (1)
TV partner(s) TruTV, TBS
Official website http://www.ncaa.com/sports/beach-volleyball

The NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship is an NCAA-sanctioned tournament to determine the national champions of collegiate women's beach volleyball. It is a National Collegiate Championship featuring teams from Division I, Division II and Division III, and is the 90th, and newest, NCAA championship event.[1] It was the first new NCAA championship to be created since the NCAA Division III Men's Volleyball Championship in 2012, and the first for women since the NCAA Bowling Championship in 2004.

History

The championship was approved by the NCAA Convention during the fall of 2015, and a committee was selected to determine the tournament's organizational structure. Before 2015, sand volleyball had been one of the NCAA's "emerging sports" (which included women's ice hockey, bowling, rowing, and water polo in the past). As such, a separate championship had been contested annually, since 2012, by the American Volleyball Coaches Association. Before 2012 several championships were televised by Collegiate Nationals. As of 2015, over 50 schools (from Divisions I, II, and III) had sponsored sand volleyball, ten more than the total number of required programs.

The sport's name was changed from "sand volleyball" to the more usual "beach volleyball" in June 2015, and the committee overseeing the sport is now named the NCAA Beach Volleyball Committee.[2]

Structure

The championship is held each May and consists of eight teams playing in a double-elimination style tournament under standard beach volleyball rules. All matches consist of five sets, with each team needing to win three sets to advance.

The NCAA does not add automatic qualifiers until two championship seasons have passed; but in 2016, the top 3 teams from the east and west were given automatic bids with 2 additional teams invited at-large.

As of fall 2015, five conferences sponsored beach volleyball, all with at least six members — the minimum number for a conference to qualify for an automatic bid to other NCAA championship tournaments. All five conferences were represented in the inaugural tournament:

Results

NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship
Year Site
(Host)
Host Venue Final Semifinalists
Winner Score Runner-up Third Place Fourth Place
2016
Details
Gulf Shores, AL
(UAB)
Gulf Shores Public Beach USC 3–0 Florida State UCLA Hawaii
2017
Details

Summary

Cumulative results

Team Championships Runners-up Third-place Fourth-place
USC 1 (2016) 0 0 0
Florida State 0 1 (2016) 0 0
UCLA 0 0 1 (2016) 0
Hawaii 0 0 0 1 (2016)

Appearances

Team Tournament appearances Tournament years Tournament debut Last tournament Best result
Arizona 1 2016 2016 2016 Fifth place (2016)
Florida State 1 2016 2016 2016 Runners-Up (2016)
Georgia State 1 2016 2016 2016 Seventh place (2016)
Hawaii 1 2016 2016 2016 Fourth place (2016)
Pepperdine 1 2016 2016 2016 Fifth place (2016)
Stetson 1 2016 2016 2016 Seventh place (2016)
UCLA 1 2016 2016 2016 Third place (2016)
USC 1 2016 2016 2016 Champions (2016)

Broadcasting

Turner Sports holds broadcast rights to the tournament, early-round coverage airs on TruTV, and the championship game airs on TBS.[3][4]

See also

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/19/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.