LONG BEACH, Calif. -- The No. 11 University of Hawai'i women's beach volleyball team gears up for the postseason when it heads off to the Big West Beach Volleyball Championship, April 25-26, in Long Beach. 

The Rainbow Wahine seek their fourth conference title and first since 2018 when they take on a field of six other squads in brand-new tournament format. The first day of the event will see every team in action in modified pool play. After Day 1, the field will be narrowed to six and a single-elimination bracket will commence for Day 2 to crown The Big West champion. UH (20-11)  is the No. 3  seed and will open pool play versus No. 6 seed CSU Bakersfield on Thursday, April 25 at 9:30 a.m. PT/6:30 a.m. HT. If UH captures its pool by winning both of its matches on Thursday, they will earn a bye into Friday's championship semifinals.
 

2024 Big West Beach Volleyball Championship
Who				No. 1 Cal Poly, No. 2 Long Beach State, No. 3 Hawai'i, No. 4 UC Davis, No. 5 CSUN, No. 6 CSU Bakersfield,  No. 7 Sacramento State
Date | Time				Thursday, April 25, first serve at 9:30 a.m. PT  |  Friday, April 26, first serve at 8:30 a.m. PT
Location				Long Beach, Calif. — Long Beach City College
Tournament Central				Bracket | Live Scoring | Tournament History
Social Media				@UHBeachVolley  | #HawaiiBVB #BeachBows24 | @uhbeachvolleyball  | Facebook

UH In the Big West Championship: UH is 18-8 all-time in the tournament and claimed the tournament crown in its first three years of existence (2016, '17, '18)..since then Cal Poly won three straight titles (2019, '21, '22) before Long Beach State won its first-ever title last year (2023)....seven of of UH's eight losses have come to Cal Poly…that includes last year when the Mustangs upset the top-seeded and host BeachBows in the semifinals…prior to that UH had made the tournament finials in each of the first six editions. 

What's At Stake: This year marks the third straight the tournament winner gains an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, which has expanded to 17 teams in 2023…there are nine automatic bids and eight at-large bids up for grabs this year…three Big West teams - No. 5 Cal Poly, No. 7 Long Beach State and No. 11 Hawa'ii are currently ranked in the AVCA Poll…the NCAA selection show will be on Sunday, April 28 and 11 a.m. EDT/5 a.m. HT.,..the 2024 NCAA Championship will be held in Gulf Shores, Ala., May 3-5. 

Big West Review: All seven conference teams converged for the Big West Challenge, March 22-23, on the campuses of Sacramento State and UC Davis…UH went 5-1 during that weekend, upsetting then No. 7 Long Beach State, 3-2, before concluding the tournament with a 5-0 loss to then No. 9 Cal Poly. 

Nearing A Milestone: Kaylee Glagau is third all-time in dual match wins at UH with 99…she is just one win away from becoming just the third Rainbow Wahine to hit 100 dual match wins for her career, joining Ari Homayun (115) and fellow Canadian Emily Maglio (108)…another Canadian, senior Jaime Santer, who has notched 21 wins thus far this year, now has 82 career dual match wins to rank seventh all-time at UH and is five behind Brooke Van Sickle for the No. 6 spot.

'Bow Bits: UH has used 17 different pairing combinations this year…the No. 1 pair of Jaime Santer-Alana Embry is the only one to appear in all 31 matches together, while the No. 3 pair of Sydney Amiatu and Riley Wagoner have played in all but one match together…Anna Maidment and Sydney Miller, have been the winningest pair in the lineup going 20-6 (.769) overall, including 16-4 (.800) at the No. 5 flight.  

All-Time Records vs the Field: The 'Bows are 10-0 against both CSUN and CSU Bakersfield…the 'Bows are 6-0 against Sacramento State...UH is 9-1 against UC Davis…UH is 24-9 all-time against LBSU…the 'Bows have defeated the Beach eight of the last nine times and in 16 of the last 19 meetings…the Beach beat UH for the first-time ever in the Big West Championship last year in Honolulu…UH is 14-12 all-time against Cal Poly and have dropped it last two meetings against the Mustangs.