UNF, FSU, TCU, Chattanooga, Georgia State claim NCAA beach volleyball bids

The preliminary work is done after five more automatic bids were clinched on Saturday.

At 11 a.m. Eastern Sunday the field of 17 will be announced for the NCAA’s National Collegiate Beach Volleyball Championship that begins Friday in Gulf Shores, Alabama.

The announcement, which can be seen on NCAA.com, will include North Florida, which won the ASUN; Florida State, which won the CCSA; TCU, which won Conference USA; Chattanooga, which won the Ohio Valley Conference; and Georgia State, which won the Sun Belt Conference.

Four other teams had already claimed their conferences’ respective automatic bids: USC, Hawai’i, Loyola Marymount and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

There are eight at-large bids up for grabs and VolleyballMag’s Larry Hamel projects them to go to UCLA, Stanford, Cal Poly, Long Beach State, Arizona State, Cal, LSU and Florida International. Hamel expects North Florida to face Chattanooga in the play-in match.

ASUN

North Florida is in the NCAA Championship for the first time. 

From the North Florida recap:

DELAND, Fla. –  North Florida beach volleyball (24-11) became the first team in conference history to sweep the entire ASUN Tournament and earned its fifth championship title in program history with a 3-0 sweep over No. 2 Stetson (22-12) on Saturday afternoon at the Cooper Beach Volleyball Courts.

Click here for the UNF recap and boxscores.

CCSA

Florida State is a fixture in the NCAA Championship and now awaits seeding. Hamel projects the Seminoles as the No. 4 seed after USC, UCLA and Stanford.

From the CCSA recap:

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Florida State captures the 2024 Coastal Collegiate Sports Association (CCSA) Beach Volleyball Championship after a 3-0 win against #4 South Carolina. Top-seeded Florida State remained perfect with a 3-0 record throughout the CCSA Championship en route to their seventh league title.

The Seminoles faced #4 South Carolina in the championship match after the Gamecocks completed their second upset of the tournament defeating No. 10 LSU. South Carolina’s 4’s and 5’s pair finished with seven seconds of each other to clinch the win over the Tigers. In the Gamecocks’ first championship finals appearance, South Carolina took the first set on the 1’s court and forced a three-set match on the 2’s and 3’s pair. Ultimately, the Seminoles claimed the 4’s, 5’s pair while the top court sealed the deal in a 15-10 third set win.

Click here for the FSU recap and boxscores.

Conference USA

Last year, TCU won the CCSA title. This season, it moved to CUSA and won the inaugural championship.

From the TCU recap:

YOUNGSVILLE, La. – TCU won the CUSA Championship in its inaugural year in the conference on Saturday after defeating Tulane 3-0 at Sugar Beach.

In its first season as a member of CUSA, TCU, who earned the No. 1 seed heading into the championship, went 4-0 to earn the conference title. TCU defeated Tarleton State (3-0), Tulane (3-0) and No. 19 FAU (3-1) before beating the Green Wave a second time in the finals.

Click here for the TCU recap and here for the CUSA recap that has the boxscores.

Ohio Valley

Chattanooga is going to Gulf Shores for the first time. 

From the Chattanooga recap:

MOREHEAD, Ky. — For the first time in program history, Chattanooga beach volleyball can call itself Ohio Valley Conference Tournament champions after UTC dominated Lindenwood 3-0 in the tournament final on Saturday.

The Mocs end their weekend as double champions, having entered the tournament as co-regular season champions following a 9-1 OVC record on the year. UTC then went on to go a perfect 3-0 this weekend in Morehead, failing to drop a match against the likes of Lindenwood and UT Martin in the double elimination bracket.

Click here for the Chattanooga recap and boxscore.

Sun Belt

Georgia State is back in the NCAA tourney for the third year in a row.

From the Georgia State recap: 

HUNTSVILLE, Ala.— The top-seeded Georgia State beach volleyball team notched a 3-1 victory over Coastal Carolina to claim the 2024 Sun Belt Conference Championship Title. With the conference championship victory at the John Hunt Park Sand Volleyball Complex, GSU will receive the league’s automatic bid to the 2024 NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship being contested in Gulf Shores, Ala. from May 3-5.

Savannah Ebarb and Destiny White secured match point for the Sandy Panthers in Saturday’s SBC title match, as the duo secured a 25-23, 21-18 victory at the third flight. Elise Saga and Aliisa Vuorinen earned the team its first point for the dual with a 21-18, 21-19 win at the fourth flight, while Lila Bordis and Aree Keller downed opponents at the second flight to earn the second point.

Click here for the Sun Belt Conference recap and boxscores.