By Cassie Langdon for the NCAA
148 %.
That’s how a lot NCAA girls’s seaside volleyball has grown over the previous 10 years. The 2013-14 season had 39 groups. In 2023-24 that complete is as much as 97 groups, all with the identical finish objective: Win a nationwide championship.
Seventeen groups will probably be chosen for the 2024 Nationwide Collegiate Seashore Volleyball Championship. The sphere will probably be introduced Sunday, April 28, on NCAA.com and play begins Friday, Could 3.
Quarterfinals and semifinals are Could 4 and a nationwide champion will probably be topped Could 5. All duals will happen on the Gulf Shores Public Seashore in Gulf Shores, Alabama, which has been the house of the seaside volleyball championship for the reason that first championship in 2016. In 2025, the championship will transfer to Huntington Seashore, California, for 2 years.
This 12 months’s championship guarantees to be an thrilling ending to a different aggressive season, which started to start with of February.
The 12 months So Far
Whereas UCLA and USC have led within the AVCA ballot all season, loads of different groups have discovered success. Twenty-three totally different groups have been ranked at numerous instances, with a number of packages breaking into the highest 5.
No crew is unbeaten — in reality, no crew has lower than three losses. There have been loads of upsets and close-calls all season lengthy. Convention tournaments are underneath approach, following greater than 1,400 duals that had been performed within the common season.
Who Will get In?
The complete 17-team subject will probably be introduced on Sunday, April 28. 9 of the spots will come from automated qualifiers, with the opposite eight groups being chosen at-large from all throughout the nation. The Ladies’s Seashore Volleyball Committee meets all through the season and in the end selects the at-large groups and seeds your entire subject. The committee is comprised of seven members and the chair is Ashley Armstrong, Deputy Athletic Director/SWA of Loyola Marymount College.
“We’re excited to return to Gulf Shores for the 2024 Nationwide Collegiate Seashore Volleyball Championship. Town does an excellent job of supporting this championship and making it an ideal venue to observe one of the best collegiate seaside volleyball within the nation,” Armstrong stated.
“The emergence of collegiate seaside volleyball has made this top-of-the-line collegiate championship experiences to be part of. We hope followers, mother and father, and seaside volleyball lovers purchase their tickets to come back to Gulf Shores and help the 17 groups competing to be the 2024 nationwide champion.”
Conferences receiving automated qualification embrace:
- ASUN Convention
- Huge West Convention
- Coastal Collegiate Sports activities Affiliation
- Convention USA
- Ohio Valley Convention
- PAC-12 Convention
- Southland Convention
- Solar Belt Convention
- West Coast Convention
For the eight at-large groups, the committee will use the next choice standards to find out who is chosen:
- Head-to-head competitors
- Outcomes versus frequent opponents
- Energy of schedule
- Total file (should be .500 or above)
Within the seven years of the championship, 22 totally different groups have competed for a title. Solely two groups have gained for the reason that championship’s inception: Three-time defending-champion USC (5) and UCLA (2). Will 2024 be the 12 months a brand new crew breaks by way of?
Catch the Motion
As a substitute of taking part in the opening spherical between seeds 16 and 17 on Wednesday, that match will shift to the opening spot on Friday, Could 3. The winner of that twin will advance to affix the opposite 15 seeds in a single-elimination bracket. The occasion will probably be televised by ESPN networks, with ESPNU offering reside protection on Friday, Could 3. Stay protection will proceed on Could 4 on ESPN2 and the championship will probably be aired reside on ESPN on Could 5.
To attend the championship in individual in Gulf Shores, tickets might be bought at ncaa.com/beachvolleyball. All-session and day passes can be found.
Competitors begins 8 a.m. Central on Friday, Could 3.