BEACH VOLLEYBALL EARNS SIXTH SEED IN NCAA TOURNAMENT
April 29, 2018
COLUMBIA, S.C. – The NCAA beach volleyball championship bracket was unveiled Sunday night, and the ninth-ranked South Carolina beach volleyball program earned the number six seed. The Gamecocks (24-7) will face the number three seed, Hawai’i, at 1 p.m. on Friday, May 4.
The double-elimination tournament takes place on the beach at Gulf Shores, Ala. and features eight teams — three from the west region, three from the east, and two at-large teams. South Carolina earned the number two east seed, following up its first-ever appearance last season as the overall No. 8 seed. In its first trip to the tournament, the Gamecocks lost to eventual champion Southern Cal in the first round, and then fell in the elimination bracket to No. 4 seed Florida State. The team returned seven starters that competed in last season’s tournament.
“The body of work we’ve created this year, all of the hard work these student-athletes put into this season, I think it (the sixth seed) is a place that’s representative of the effort they’ve put into it ” head coach Moritz Moritz said. “Last year we got through the first-year jitters, we didn’t know what to expect, we didn’t have an understanding of how the process worked. The level of expectation based off last year has risen, we knew we wanted to get back to Gulf Shores and we want to continue to excel at Gulf Shores.”
“We’ve worked so hard all season, and I definitely think this team deserves to be there so seeing our name at that sixth seed really got me fired up,” senior Julia Mannisto added. “I’m excited for this upcoming week, I’m ready to put in more work, we’re a different team than we were last season so I’m excited to see how we’re going to compete in this upcoming tournament.”
The Gamecocks are battle-tested entering the championship bracket, with 12 wins over nationally ranked opponents and a program-record 24 wins overall. The team’s schedule in the regular season featured 18 duals against top-20 opponents, including six teams that also made this championship bracket. The Gamecocks hosted Hawai’i on March 24, with the then-third-ranked Rainbow Wahine coming away with a 3-2 victory in the first-ever meeting between the two programs.
This season, ESPN will carry the championship on its family of networks, with the preliminary rounds on ESPNU and ESPN2, and the championship airing Sunday, May 6 at 3 p.m. ET on ESPN. Gamecock fans interested in cheering on the team in person can find out more information on tickets through the following LINK HERE.
