| NCAA Men's National Collegiate Volleyball Tournament | |
| Year: | 2018 |
| Dates: | April 26–May 5, 2018 |
| Num Teams: | 7 |
| Champions: | Long Beach State (2nd title) |
| Runner-Up: | UCLA |
| Matches: | 6 |
| Attendance: | 14211 |
| Player Label: | Most Outstanding Player |
| Player: | Josh Tuaniga (Long Beach State) |
| Prevseason: | 2017 |
| Nextseason: | 2019 |
The 2018 NCAA Men's National Collegiate Volleyball Tournament was the 49th annual tournament to determine the national champion of NCAA Division I and Division II men's collegiate indoor volleyball. The single-elimination tournament began on April 26 with a play-in match, with the remainder of the tournament hosted by UCLA from May 1–5 at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles. Long Beach State became the Champions for the second time in school history with a 5-set victory over UCLA.[1]
With the addition of the Big West Conference, which began sponsoring men's volleyball in the 2018 season, to the ranks of automatic qualifying conferences, the tournament expanded from six teams to seven.[2] [3]
Since the 2015 season, the first after the completion of the transition of the last Division III institution competing at the National Collegiate level, Rutgers–Newark, to Division III volleyball, only NCAA men's volleyball programs from Division I and Division II have been eligible for this tournament. Five automatic bids are given to the five conference postseason tournament winners. The two remaining teams are given at-large bids by the NCAA men's volleyball tournament Committee.
| School | Conference | Record | Berth | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Long Beach State | 26–1 | |||
| King | 23–5 | |||
| Harvard | 13–13 | |||
| Ohio State | 23–5 | |||
| 22–6 | ||||
| UC Irvine | Big West | 21–9 | At-Large | |
| UCLA | MPSF | 24–7 | At-Large |
| Time[5] | Matchup | Score | Attendance | Broadcasters | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opening Round – Thursday, April 26 | |||||
| 7:00 pm | No. 6 Ohio State vs. No. 7 King | 3-0 (25–13, 25–23, 25–18) | 1,023 | Charlie Danis & Hanna Williford (BTN+) | |
| Quarterfinals – Tuesday, May 1 | |||||
| 8:00 pm | No. 4 UC Irvine vs. No. 6 Ohio State | 2–3 (19–25, 25–22, 23–25, 25–22, 14–16) | 1,691 | Darren Preston & Denny Cline (P12+ UCLA) | |
| 11:05 pm | No. 3 UCLA vs. No. 5 Harvard | 3–1 (23–25, 25–21, 25–11, 25–21) | |||
| Semifinals – Thursday, May 3 | |||||
| 8:00 pm | No. 1 Long Beach State vs. No. 6 Ohio State | 3–1 (25–22, 25–23, 25–27, 32–30) | 4,249 | Lincoln Rose (NCAA.com) | |
| 10:30 pm | No. 2 BYU vs. No. 3 UCLA | 1–3 (22–25, 26–24, 27–29, 19–25) | |||
| National Championship – Saturday, May 5 | |||||
| 7:00 pm | No. 1 Long Beach State vs. No. 3 UCLA | 3–2 (25–19, 23–25, 20–25, 26–24, 15–12) | 7,248 | Paul Sunderland and Kevin Barnett (ESPN2) | |
| Game times are ET. Rankings denote tournament seeding. | |||||