BeachBows Earn At-Large Bid to NCAA Championship

HONOLULU – The University of Hawai'i Rainbow Wahine (24-16) will make its fifth appearance in the NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship in Gulf Shores, Ala., after gaining an at-large selection on Saturday.

Hawai'i was tabbed a No. 13 seed and will open competition on Wednesday, May 4 against No. 4 seed Loyola Marymount (29-7) at 11 a.m. CT/6:00 am HT on ESPNU. The two are familiar foes having met in Honolulu less than a month ago. The teams split a pair of close matches by identical 3-2 scores.The Lions come into the NCAAs having just been crowned the WCC champions.

The tournament field has doubled in size to 16 teams this year. Wednesday's action will be single-elimination with the eight winners advancing to the double-elimination format, May 6-8. Defending national champion USC earned the top seed, followed by No. 2 TCU and No. 3 UCLA.

Cal Poly (23-16), which defeated the Rainbow Wahine twice this past weekend on its home court to win the Big West championship earned an automatic berth as the No. 12 seed and will face No. 5 Florida State. The Mustangs make their third-ever trip to the NCAAs, giving the Big West multiple bids. Should both teams win their opening match, they would meet up again in the NCAA second round.

UH returns to Gulf Shores for the first time since 2019. UH has made five of six NCAA Tournaments, missing out only in 2021. Overall, this will be UH's seventh trip as a team to Gulf Shores. The SandBows also competed for the national title during the 2014 and '15 American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Championships.

The event will be televised live by ESPN networks, with ESPNU providing live coverage of all eight matches on Wednesday, May 4 starting at 4 a.m. HT. Live coverage will continue Friday, May 6 on ESPNU, while the final two days will air on ESPN2.

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