SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- The No. 15 University of Hawai'i women's beach volleyball team has its sights on the postseason when it heads to the Big West Beach Volleyball Championship, April 24-25, hosted by CSUN at Ocean Park in Santa Monica. 

The Rainbow Wahine seek to retain the Big West title it won in dramatic fashion in 2024. UH won four straight matches – culminating in a 3-2 win over host Long Beach State – to capture their fourth conference title and first since 2018. Mirroring last year's format, the two-day Big West Championship event will again see a full day of pool play on Thursday before a six-team single elimination bracket play commences on Friday to crown a champion and automatic bid to  the NCAAs.

UH (12-19)  is the No. 3  seed for the second straight year and will open pool play versus No. 6 seed CSU Bakersfield on Thursday, April 25 at 10:45 a.m. PT/7:45 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.  

2025 Big West Beach Volleyball Championship
Who				No. 1 Cal Poly, No. 2 Long Beach State, No. 3 Hawai'i, No. 4 CSUN, No. 5 UC Davis, No. 6 CSU Bakersfield,  No. 7 Sacramento State
Date | Time				Thursday, April 24, first serve at 9:30 a.m. PT  |  Friday, April 25, first serve at 8:30 a.m. PT
Location				Santa Monica, Calif. — Ocean Park
Tournament Central				Bracket | Live Scoring | Tournament History
Social Media				@UHBeachVolley  | #HawaiiBVB #BeachBows24 | @uhbeachvolleyball  | Facebook

UH In the Big West Championship: UH is 22-8 (.733) all-time in the tournament and has claimed the tournament crown four times (2016, '17, '18, '24)..Cal Poly won three straight titles (2019, '21, '22) before Long Beach State won its first-ever title last year (2023)....seven of UH's eight losses in the BWC have come to Cal Poly with UH going 22-1 against the rest of the field…UH has  made the tournament finals in seven of eight editions with the lone exception in 2023, when ironically, UH last hosted the event. 

What's At Stake: This year marks the fourth straight the tournament winner gains an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, which is a 16-team field in 2025…there are eight automatic bids and eight at-large bids up for grabs this year…three Big West teams - No. 6 Cal Poly, No. 10 Long Beach State and No. 15 Hawa'i are currently ranked in the AVCA Poll…the NCAA selection show will be on Sunday, April 27 and 1 p.m. EDT/7 a.m. HT.,..the 2025 NCAA Championship will be held in Gulf Shores, Ala., May 2-4. 

Big West Review: All seven conference teams converged for the Big West Challenge, March 21-22, on the campus of Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo…UH went 4-2 during that weekend with convincing wins over UC Davis (5-0), CSU Bakersfield (4-1), Sacramento State (4-1) and CSUN (4-1)...the BeachBows losses came at the hands of then No. 8 Long Beach State (4-1) and host and then No. 6 Cal Poly (5-0).

'Bow Bits: UH has used 15 different combinations this year…the duos of Sarah Burton-Caprice Lorenzo (14-17) and Jesse Mann-Jasmine Wandeler (13-18) are the only pairs to appear in all 31 matches together….Burton and Lorenzo have played 39 matches together over the span of the last three years and went  a perfect 4-0 at the No. 5 flight last year to help lift UH to the Big West crown…a total of 22 of UH's 31 matches this year have come against ranked opponents…UH is 3-19 this season against ranked teams…13 of those losses have come against Top 10 squads and all but three against squads in the top 12…the BeachBows are 14-28 in three-set matches this year and have lost their last seven straight in such scenarios.

All-Time Records vs the Field: The 'Bows are 11-0 against both CSUN and CSU Bakersfield, including 2-0 against each of them in the BWC…the 'Bows are 7-0 against Sacramento State and have never met in the BWC...UH is 11-1 all-time against UC Davis and have beaten them twice in the BWC, including, 3-0, in last year's semifinals…UH is 26-10 all-time against LBSU…the 'Bows have won 11 of 12 meetings versus the Beach in the BWC, including two wins last year, highlighted by a 3-2 title match victory…UH is 15-14 all-time against Cal Poly and have dropped it last four meetings against the Mustangs…UH is 3-7 against Cal Poly in the BWC.