2018 NCAA men's volleyball tournament explained

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]

Qualification

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.

Bids

SchoolConferenceRecordBerth
Long Beach State26–1
King23–5
Harvard13–13
Ohio State23–5
22–6
UC IrvineBig West 21–9 At-Large
UCLAMPSF 24–7 At-Large

Tournament bracket

Schedule and results

Time[5] MatchupScoreAttendanceBroadcasters
Opening Round – Thursday, April 26
7:00 pmNo. 6 Ohio State vs. No. 7 King3-0
(25–13, 25–23, 25–18)
1,023Charlie Danis & Hanna Williford (BTN+)
Quarterfinals – Tuesday, May 1
8:00 pmNo. 4 UC Irvine vs. No. 6 Ohio State2–3
(19–25, 25–22, 23–25, 25–22, 14–16)
1,691Darren Preston & Denny Cline (P12+ UCLA)
11:05 pmNo. 3 UCLA vs. No. 5 Harvard3–1
(23–25, 25–21, 25–11, 25–21)
Semifinals – Thursday, May 3
8:00 pmNo. 1 Long Beach State vs. No. 6 Ohio State3–1
(25–22, 25–23, 25–27, 32–30)
4,249Lincoln Rose (NCAA.com)
10:30 pmNo. 2 BYU vs. No. 3 UCLA1–3
(22–25, 26–24, 27–29, 19–25)
National Championship – Saturday, May 5
7:00 pmNo. 1 Long Beach State vs. No. 3 UCLA3–2
(25–19, 23–25, 20–25, 26–24, 15–12)
7,248Paul Sunderland and Kevin Barnett (ESPN2)
Game times are ET. Rankings denote tournament seeding.

All-Tournament Team

See also

Notes and References

  1. http://uclabruins.com/news/2018/5/5/mens-volleyball-no-3-ucla-falls-just-short-in-national-title-match.aspx No. 3 UCLA Falls Just Short in National Title Match
  2. Web site: A Few Key Changes Coming to the 2018 NCAA men's volleyball tournament . Derek . Johnson . VolleyMob . October 11, 2017 . April 19, 2018.
  3. Pavlik Releases 2018 MVB Schedule . . October 10, 2017 . April 19, 2018.
  4. https://www.ncaa.com/news/volleyball-men/article/2018-04-22/ncaa-mens-volleyball-committee-announces-championship NCAA Men's Volleyball Committee announces championship selections
  5. https://i.turner.ncaa.com/sites/default/files/external/gametool/brackets/volleyball-men_nc_2018.pdf 2018 NCAA men's volleyball tournament Bracket