For Immediate Release \\ Thursday, May 3, 2018 Contacts \\ Pac-12: Natalia Ciccone ([email protected]) 2018 PAC-12 BEACH VOLLEYBALL NATIONAL POLLS AVCA . RANK . .DiG OVERALL vs. PAC-12* vs. Ranked UCLA.........1..........UCLA W-L Pct. H A N STREAK W-L Pct. Teams AVCA/DiG Pepperdine . 2......Pepperdine Arizona 20-12 .625 11-2 3-2 6-8 L1 4-5 .444 3-12 14/14 Hawai’i........3.........Hawai’i Arizona State 11-20 .355 2-4 2-4 7-12 L1 1-8 .111 1-16 -/- Cal Poly .......4.........Cal Poly California 24-8 .750 7-0 2-2 15-6 L1 7-5 .583 7-6 12/10 USC..........5...........USC Long Beach St. .6...Long Beach St. Oregon 2-10 .167 0-0 2-3 0-7 L6 0-4 .000 0-6 -/- Florida State....7.....Florida State Stanford 17-13 .567 10-5 0-4 7-4 L2 7-6 .538 6-12 13/13 LSU ..........8............LSU UCLA 35-3 .921 9-0 6-2 20-1 W30 9-1 .900 30-3 1/1 South Carolina ..9....South Carolina USC 25-12 .676 2-3 3-5 20-4 L1 9-3 .750 17-12 5/5 FIU . 10 . .CALIFORNIA Georgia State .. 11 . FIU Utah 5-12 .294 0-0 0-6 5-6 L2 0-2 .000 0-11 -/- CALIFORNIA .. 12 . .Georgia State Washington 14-13 .519 5-1 2-4 7-8 L1 3-7 .300 4-12 -/- STANFORD . 13 . .STANFORD ARIZONA..... 14 . ARIZONA *NOTE: The Pac-12 Conference is not recording offcial league standings. League records listed are for refer- Loyola Marymount 15 . .Tulane ence only and refect all contests between members. Stetson ...... 16 .Saint Mary’s (CA) Grand Canyon . 17 . Loyola Marymount UCLA, USC COMPETE FOR NCAA BEACH VOLLEYBALL TITLE Tulane ....... 18 . Stetson Saint Mary’s (CA) 19 . Grand Canyon Top-ranked and Pac-12 Champion UCLA received its frst-ever No. 1 overall seed in the 2018 National Colle- Florida Atlantic. 20 . Florida Atlantic giate Beach Volleyball Championship and is looking to claim the its frst-ever national title. Among the teams standing in the way is two-time defending national champion USC, the No. 5 seed overall in the eight-team PAIRS OF THE WEEK feld. The beach volleyball national championship will be competed in Gulf Shores, Ala., May 4-6. Feb. 27 . Abril Bustamante and . Terese Cannon, USC Also in the feld are No. 2-seed Pepperdine, No. 3-seed Hawai’i, No. 4-seed Florida State, No. 6-seed Mar. 6 . Morgan Hentz and South Carolina, No. 7-seed LSU and No. 8-seed Florida International. Amelia Smith, STAN The event will be televised live by ESPN networks, with ESPNU providing live coverage on Friday, May Mar. 13 . .Izzy Carey and 4 starting at 10 a.m. ET. Live coverage continues Saturday, May 5 on ESPN2, starting at 2 p.m. ET and Sun- . Megan Muret, UCLA Mar. 20 . Megan McNamara and day, May 6 at 11:30 a.m. on ESPN2. The championship dual airs on ESPN on Sunday, May 6, at 2 p.m. ET. Nicole McNamara, UCLA Additionally, live streaming coverage of every court throughout the tournament will be available on ESPN3. Mar. 27 . Abril Bustamante and . .Tina Graudina, USC The Bruins are coming off winning their frst Conference crown in the three-year history of the Pac-12 April 2 . .Zana Muno and Beach Volleyball Championship. UCLA went 4-0 in the championship to claim the crown in a championship . .Savvy Simo, UCLA that featured the strongest feld in the history of the event with more than half the feld being ranked in the April 10 . Lily Justine and top 20 in the nation (fve ranked teams in total). UCLA unseated two-time champion USC, 3-1, in the fnal . .Sarah Sponcil, UCLA April 17 . .Courtney Bowen and dual. UCLA takes its program-record 30-dual win streak and 35 wins into the national championship where . Sunny Villapando, STAN it looks to claim its frst NCAA title in the sport. The Bruins open again FIU (22-10) in the frst round of the April 24 . Grace Campbell and double-elimination tournament. Maddie Micheletti, CAL USC (25-12) is the only team to have won the national collegiate championship in beach volleyball, win- ALL-TIME TEAM TOTALS ning the frst two events in 2016 and 2017. The Trojans came in second place at the Pac-12 Championship California .......................1 and have been ranked in the top fve in the nation all season. All but one of their team losses have come to Stanford........................2 USC..........................13 teams that have earned bids to this week’s event. USC faces Florida State (30-6) in the frst round, a rematch UCLA..........................8 of a March 11 clash which the Trojans won, 3-2. Washington .....................1 Megan and Nicole McNamara were named the Pac-12 Pair of the Year, as voted on by the Pac-12 coaches. The coaches also selected Nicole the Pac-12 Player of the Year, USC’s Tina Graudina the Pac-12 FOLLOW THE PAC-12 Freshman of the Year and UCLA head coach Stein Metzger the Pac-12 Coach of the Year. It is the second- consecutive year Metzger receives the honor. Pac-12............. Twitter: @pac12 . .Instagram: pac12conference . .Facebook: Pac-12 Conference SCHEDULE OF EVENTS Hashtag............... #Pac12BVB DATE EVENT TIME (Local to site) Television Arizona ..............@UABeachVB Fri., May 4 Championship opening rounds 9 a.m. ET/6 a.m. PT ESPNU Arizona State . @SunDevilBeachVB California ...........@CalBeachVball Sat., May 5 Play continues 3 p.m. ET/12 p.m. PT ESPN2 Oregon................ @OregonVB Semifnal #1 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT ESPN2 Stanford..........@StanfordBeachVB UCLA............... @uclabeachvb USC..................@USCBeach Sun., May 6 Semifnal #2 12:30 p.m. ET/9:30 a.m. PT ESPN2 Washington . @UW_BeachVB Championship dual 3 p.m. ET/12 p.m. PT ESPN Trophy presentation 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT ESPN3 For brackets, results and live updates, visit *Full bracket on page 3. pac-12.com/beach-volleyball/championship 2018 PAC-12 BEACH VOLLEYBALL REVIEW STANFORD, Calif. - No. 1-ranked and top-seeded UCLA defeated USC to claim the Bruins’ frst-ever Pac-12 Beach Volleyball Championship crown at the Stanford 2018 TEAM BRACKET Beach Volleyball Stadium. The Bruins did not drop a dual in the three-day event, THURSDAY-SATURDAY, APRIL 26-28, 2018 extending their program-record win streak to 30 in a row. OPENING ROUND The Bruins won points at the No. 1, 2 and 4 pairs. Elise Zappia and Mac May #8 UTAH def. #9 OREGON, 4-1 claimed the team’s frst point but the USC pair of Alexandra Poletto and Haley Hall- #2 USC def. #7 ARIZONA STATE, 4-1 gren won a close match at No. 5 to even the score, 1-1. In the second round, twins #3 CALIFORNIA def. #6 WASHINGTON, 4-1 Nicole and Megan McNamara held off USC’s top pair of Tina Graudina and Abril #4 STANFORD def. #5 ARIZONA, 4-1 Bustamante to win the frst set, 21-19, then won in convincing fashion in the sec- #1 UCLA vs. #8 UTAH, 5-0 ond, 21-15, to give UCLA a 2-1 lead. It was the frst time this season the twins had defeated the Trojan pair, including a loss in the morning semifnal. WINNER’S BRACKET #2 USC def. #3 CALIFORNIA, 4-1 The deciding point came from the No. 3 pair of Savvy Simo and Madi Yeomans. #1 UCLA def. #4 STANFORD, 5-0 The due did not lose a set all week, claiming the championship point by a score of 21-19, 21-16. CONTENDER’S BRACKET #7 ARIZONA STATE def. #9 OREGON, 5-0 Five pairs were named to the all-tournament team, as voted on by the Pac-12 beach #5 ARIZONA def. #8 UTAH, 5-0 volleyball coaches: UW’s Schwan and Julye (No. 2 pair); USC’s Graudina and Busta- # 6 WASHINGTON def. #7 ARIZONA STATE, 4-1 mante (No. 1 pair); UCLA’s Simo and Yeoman’s (No. 3 pair), Justine and Sponcil #3 CALIFORNIA def. #5 ARIZONA, 3-2 (No. 2 pair), and the McNamara twins (No. 1 pair). #6 WASHINGTON def. #4 STANFORD, 4-1w WINNER’S BRACKET SEMIFINAL #2 UCLA def. #1 USC, 3-2 CONTENDER’S BRACKET QUARTERFINAL #3 CALIFORNIA def. #7 WASHINGTON, 3-2 CONTENDER’S BRACKET SEMIFINAL #2 USC def. #3 CALIFORNIA, 5-0 CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH #1 UCLA def. #2 USC, 3-1 ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM #2 Courtney Schwan/Destiny Julye, WASH #1 Tina Graudina/Abril Bustamante, USC Pac-12 Championship All-Tournament team #3 Savvy Simo/Madi Yeomans, UCLA #2 Lily Justine/Sarah Sponcil, UCLA #1 Nicole McNamara/Megan McNamara, UCLA PAC-12 PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Nicole McNamara, UCLA PAC-12 FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR: Tina Graudina, USC PAC-12 PAIR OF THE YEAR: Megan McNamara and Nicole McNamara, UCLA PAC-12 COACH OF THE YEAR: Stein Metzger, UCLA ALL-PAC-12 TEAM First Team Second Team Abril Bustamante, JR, USC Adora Anae, SR, UTAH Terese Cannon, R, USC Jordan Anderson, SR, WASH Tina Graudina, FR, USC Dani Barton, SR, UTAH Lily Justine, SO, UCLA Courtney Bowen, JR, STAN Nicole McNamara, JR, UCLA Haley Hallgren, Fr, USC Megan McNamara, JR, UCLA Morgan Hentz, SO, STAN Mima Mirkovic, FR, CAL Destiny Julye, JR, WASH Kathryn Plummer, SO, STAN Iya Lindahl, SO, CAL Sarah Sponcil, JR, UCLA Savvy Simo, SO, UCLA Courtney Schwan, SR, WASH Sammy Slater, FR, USC ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM Tina Graudina, USC Mac May, UCLA Mima Mirkovic, CAL Sammy Slater, USC Sunny Villapando, STAN 2 2018 PAC-12 BEACH VOLLEYBALL // Thursday, May 2, 2018 2018 National Collegiate Beach Volleyball Championship Gulf Place Gulf Shores, Alabama May 4-6, 2018 #1 UCLA (35-3) Dual No.