The tournament will be held at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion and will begin next Sunday with Princeton (15-12), the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association tournament champion, facing North Greenfield (20-5), the Conference Carolinas tournament champion, in an opening-round match. The winner will advance to face Hawaii (24-5) on May 3.
Despite a three-set defeat to defending NCAA champion Hawaii in Saturday’s Big West Conference Tournament title match, the Beach (20-5) earned the top seed. Long Beach State will begin NCAA tournament play May 5 against the winner of the May 3 opening-round match between UCLA (21-4) and Pepperdine (19-9).
Ball State (23-3) was seeded second following regular-season and conference tournament championships in the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association. The Cardinals will face the winner of Hawaii Princeton/North Greenville in a semifinal on May 5.
The title match is scheduled on May 7. The tournament features the men’s volleyball tournament champions from each of the five Division I conferences, as well as two at-large teams. Long Beach State was the regular-season Big West Conference champion. UCLA won the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation regular season title but fell in the MPSF Tournament quarterfinals against Stanford. Pepperdine beat Stanford in the title match of the MPSF Tournament.
Penn State (23-4) was bypassed for an at-large berth despite winning the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association regular-season championship and being ranked second in the Ratings Power Index behind Long Beach State through last Sunday’s play and third in the American Volleyball Coaches Association poll released Monday.
