Yesterday afternoon, the UCLA beach volleyball team took their second step towards defending last year’s national championship when the Bruins defeated last year’s runner-up, the Florida State Seminoles, 3-0. The win keeps UCLA in the winner’s bracket for today’s action. 2019 NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship Dual #11 Teams: #2 seed UCLA Bruins (33-3) vs. #5 seed LSU Tigers (31-6) When: 9:00 am PT, Saturday, May 4, 2019 Where: Gulf Beach Place, Gulf Shores, AL TV: ESPN2 Live Stream: WatchESPN.com and the ESPN app (Individual court viewing available online) Live Stats: NCAA Gamecenter Official Championship Preview As the dual started, there was some bad news for the Bruins. Lea Monkhouse was not feeling well after the dual against Hawai’i and had to be taken to the hospital. In her place, Madi Yeomans was paired with Savvy Simo on court four. As play began, it looked like that pairing wasn’t going to work well for the Bruins as Yeomans and Simo dropped their first set, 13-21. Meanwhile, Zana Muno and Abby Van Winkle won their first set on court three and Lily Justine and Sarah Sponcil lost their first set on court two. On court five, Izzy Carey and Lindsey Sparks opened by winning their first set, but the McNamara twins dropped their first set on court one. Things only got better for the Bruins from there. As it turned out, in set two, the pairs which won the first set lost the second set, forcing a third set on all five courts. So, Yeomans and Simo won their second set, 21-19 on court four and the McNamaras won on court one, 21-19. Carey and Sparks lost their second set, 18-21. Over on court two, Justine and Sponcil won their second set while Muno and Van Winkle lost their second set on court three. In set three, Yeomans and Simo, which looked like a bad pairing after the first set, managed to become the first duo to win their pairing when they won set three, 15-12, to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead for the dual. The McNamaras made quick work of their third set on court one and defeated their opponents, 15-7, to give UCLA a 2-0 lead. At this point, UCLA only needed to win on one of the remaining three courts to win the dual. And, they got that win over on court five when Carey and Sparks finished their third set with a 15-13 win. That gave the Bruins a 3-0 win for the dual allowing UCLA to advance to this morning’s winner’s bracket semifinal against LSU. LSU Tigers Earlier in the afternoon, the LSU Tigers had beaten Pepperdine, 3-0, and Stetson, 3-2, to send the Tigers into this morning’s dual against the Bruins. UCLA should be familiar with today’s opponent since the Bruins defeated LSU twice during the regular season by a 4-1 margin both times. UCLA also defeated the Tigers, 3-0, in last year’s NCAA Tournament. In fact, the Bruins have never lost to LSU and lead the series, 6-0, which includes two meetings in each of the last two NCAA Tournaments. All of that said, LSU seems to be a team that is pumped to play in this year’s tournament. The Tigers will be looking to build on yesterday’s success with a win today. Outlook If the Bruins can manage to win today’s dual against the Tigers, UCLA will earn the right to defend last year’s national championship. If the Bruins should lose, then they will fall into the elimination bracket and have to play in another dual before tomorrow’s national championship game for the right to play for the title. UCLA looked flat yesterday against Hawai’i and needed to come from behind to stay in the winner’s bracket. Even the dual against Florida State was tough with all five courts going to three sets, but that was to be expected from the Seminoles. To win today, UCLA needs to keep LSU from gaining much momentum. If the Bruins can win a court or two in just two sets, it would go a long way towards a berth in tomorrow’s championship game. If UCLA has to go to three sets on five courts, the Bruins may find themselves needing two wins tomorrow to win the title. Notes Dual #11 was originally scheduled to be played this afternoon, but, due to potential bad weather in the Gulf Shores area, all of today’s game times have been changed. So, if you’re DVRing today’s game, you will need to manually adjust your recording time. Of course, it’s worth noting that this wouldn’t be an issue if the NCAA played the Beach Volleyball Tournament in Southern California, or at least alternated between Gulf Shores and the West Coast. This is your UCLA Bruins vs. LSU Tigers NCAA Beach Volleyball Tournament open thread. Go Bruins!!! Bring home NC #117!! !<doc-sep>It took the Bruins just 45 minutes to win today’s dual against the LSU Tigers, 3-0. As a result, UCLA now advances to tomorrow’s national championship dual at 11 am PT. 2019 NCAA Beach Volleyball National Championship Dual Teams: #2 seed UCLA Bruins (34-3) vs. #1 seed Southern Cal Trojans (32-5) When: 11:00 am, Sunday, May 5, 2019 Where: Gulf Beach Place, Gulf Shores, AL TV: ESPN Live Stream: WatchESPN.com and the ESPN app (Individual court viewing available online Official Championship Preview Overall, the Bruins looked a lot better than they did in either dual yesterday and the results of the dual show it. All five Bruin pairs won their first set, which set things up for UCLA to sweep the Tigers in just eight sets total. Lily Justine and Sarah Sponcil won their first set, 21-9 on court two and Izzy Carey and Lindsey Sparks followed on court five, 21-8. Madi Yeomans and Savvy Simo were the third Bruin pair to win their first set, 21-16, on court four while Zana Muno and Abby Van Winkle took their first set, 21-15. Nicole and Megan McNamara then completed the first set sweep by winning their first set, 21-19. That gave UCLA an advantage which proved to be insurmountable. Muno and Van Winkle scored the first point of the dual for the Bruins when they won their second set, 21-12. Within moments of that win, Justine and Sponcil won their match on court two, 21-17. That put UCLA up 2-0 and the Bruins still hadn’t lost a set to the Tigers. UCLA actually went to a dual point on both courts four and five. On court four, Yeomans and Simo were leading 20-15 when Carey and Sparks won their second set, 21-18, to score the Bruins’ third point, winning the dual. The McNamara twins were also leading on court one 19-14 when UCLA clinched the win. UCLA’s win drops LSU into tomorrow’s elimination bracket semifinal against Southern Cal, who defeated both Florida State and Hawai’i in a pair of elimination bracket duals today to advance to tomorrow’s semifinal. The elimination bracket semifinal will take place at 7:30 am PT tomorrow morning and will be broadcast on ESPN2 while the national championship dual is on ESPN at 11 am PT, barring any unforeseen change due to the weather. Go Bruins!!! Bring home #117!! !<doc-sep>Saturday night update: Florida State fell 3-1 to top-seeded USC on Saturday, marking the end of their 2019 campaign. Friday night update: The 3-seed ’Noles fell 3-0 to 2-seed UCLA on Friday now drop into the losers’ bracket. They’ll play top-seeded USC at 10 am on Saturday; the Trojans were upset by the 8-seed, Stetson, before eliminating 4-seed Pepperdine to remain alive. Friday afternoon update: The Seminoles have dispatched of Cal Poly 3-0 and now advance to face 2-seed UCLA in a rematch of last year’s championship finale this afternoon. Florida State beach volleyball is once again one of the best teams in the country, and on Friday, the Seminoles will begin another run at the national title to which they’ve gotten so close but not yet captured. Beach volleyball has been an NCAA sport since 2016, and in the three years since, the ’Noles have finished second, fourth, and second in the country, respectively. USC won the championship over FSU in 2016 and then repeated in 2017, while UCLA topped the Seminoles for the crown last year. Here’s the press release from FSU with more information detailing another excellent season for the Seminoles: GULF SHORES, Ala. – On Friday, May 3rd, the Florida State beach volleyball team begins play in the NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship as the No. 3 seed. The Seminoles went 28-5 this season and earned their fourth straight CCSA title. FSU opens play against the Cal Poly Mustangs on Friday at 12:00 am CT (1 pm EST). Florida State leads the series against Cal Poly 2-0 including a 4-1 win at home earlier this season. The Seminoles will play a second match [on Friday], with the time depending on their first match result. The Seminoles enter the NCAA Championship on a 12-match win streak and are one of just two programs in the nation (along with Pepperdine) to have played in every AVCA Championship (2012-15) and NCAA Championship (2016-18). Florida State is also the only program in the country to win four straight conference titles. FSU saw 16 opponents ranked in the AVCA Top-10 this season and came away with 11 wins. The Seminoles did not lose to a team currently ranked lower than fourth in the polls and posted sweeps in 12 matches this season without being swept once. They earned sweeps in six of their last eight matches including a 3-0 sweep of LSU in the CCSA Championship match.<doc-sep>
This morning, the #2 seed UCLA beach volleyball team took their first step towards defending last season’s national championship when the Bruins defeated #7 seed Hawai’i, 3-2. NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship When: Friday, May 3, 2019 Where: Gulf Beach Place, Gulf Shores, AL TV: ESPNU Live Stream: WatchESPN.com and the ESPN app (Individual court viewing available online) Dual #8 Teams: #2 seed UCLA Bruins (32-3) vs. #3 seed Florida State Seminoles (28-5) Scheduled Time: 2:00 pm PT (estimated actual start time: 2:30 pm PT) Live Stats: NCAA Gamecenter Official Championship Preview It wasn’t an easy match for the Bruins. UCLA started off with Izzy Carey and Lindsey Sparks sweeping the #5 Pairs, 21-16, 21-9, to put the Bruins up, 1-0. Unfortunately, UCLA’s #2 Pair of Sarah Sponcil and Lily Justine was swept, 20-22, 19-21, tying the match up. Hawai’i then took the advantage when the Bruins’ #4 Pair of Savvy Simo and Lea Monkhouse lost in three sets, 16-21, 21-12, 9-15. That meant that UCLA needed to win the two remaining pairs to avoid dropping to the elimination bracket. The Bruins’ Pair #3 of Zana Muno and Abby Van Winkle tied the match back up at 2-2 when they won their pair, 21-18, 19-21, 15-10. So, the match came down to the #1 Pairs. Nicole and Megan McNamara had dropped their first set, 20-22, but came back to win the second, 21-15. After jumping ahead in the third, Hawai’i tied the set up, pushing the set past 15 points. Twice, the McNamaras came back from dual points and they eventually won the third set, 20-18, sending Hawai’i to the elimination bracket and setting up this afternoon’s dual against Florida State. Of course, you’ll recall that it was Florida State who sent the Bruins to the elimination bracket in last year’s tournament before UCLA worked their way through the elimination bracket to defeat the Seminoles and win the national championship. So, there is certainly a little bit of history between these two teams. The winner of this match will meet the winner of Dual #7 between LSU and Stetson, which is going on as I write this while the loser will head to the elimination bracket for a match against Southern Cal who eliminated Pepperdine earlier this afternoon. Can the Bruins advance to tomorrow’s winner’s bracket semifinal? Or, will they have to face the Trojans tomorrow in an elimination dual? Well, if UCLA wants to stay in the winner’s bracket and maintain the easier road to the national championship match, they will need to play a little bit better than they did this morning. Hopefully, they’ve got the first dual jitters out of the way and make quick work of their dual against the Seminoles, but something tells me it won’t be that easy. This is your UCLA Bruins vs. Florida State Seminoles Dual #7 open thread. Go Bruins!!! Bring home #117! !