Mustangs Earn No. 12 Seed in NCAA Tournament, Will Face Florida State in First Round
4/30/2022 7:38:00 PM | Beach Volleyball
BRACKET
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — After winning its third straight Big West Championship to earn an automatic bid into this year's NCAA Tournament, the Cal Poly beach volleyball team has been slotted as the No. 12 seed and will face No. 5 seed Florida State in the first round of the tournament on Wednesday, May 4. The Mustangs will face the Seminoles at 1 p.m. PT Wednesday with the match airing live on ESPNU. The winner of the match will move on to play Friday, May 6 at 8 a.m. PT against the winner of LMU and Hawai'i. All the matches played on Wednesday and Friday will air on ESPNU. Saturday, May 7 and Sunday, May 8's matches will air on ESPN2. This will be Cal Poly's third trip to the NCAA Championships. The Mustangs made it for the first time in 2019 before making it last year where they earned the program's first win after beating Stanford 3-2. Cal Poly enters the tournament playing some of its best volleyball of the season. The Mustangs, who are 23-16 on the year, entered this weekend's Big West Tournament as the No. 3 seed but went 4-0, including beating No. 9 Hawai'i twice and No. 11 Long Beach State to three-peat as Big West champions and earn the automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. All five of the pairs who played this weekend finished with a combined record of 14-6. They were highlighted by the No. 3 pair of freshman Peyton Dueck and grad student Addison Hermstad as well as the No. 4 pair of redshirt senior Mariah Whalen and sophomore Piper Naess both going 4-0. The No. 1 pair of redshirt senior Tia Miric and freshman Ella Connor went 3-1, including having the championship-clinching win over Hawai'i. Miric and Connor have been stellar all year at the No. 1 spot. Together, they have the best record on the team at 26-12, the second most wins by a Cal Poly pair in a single season in program history which helped them both be named AVCA First Team All-Americans. The No. 2 pair of redshirt junior Jayelin Lombard and freshman Piper Ferch own the second most wins on the team with a 22-27 record. They had the come-from-behind duel-clinching victory on Friday night against Hawai'i to send Cal Poly into Saturday's championship. Lombard is a two-time All-Conference honoree who has played in each of Cal Poly's two previous NCAA Tournament appearances. One of the most reliable pairs in the lineup all year have been the No. 3 pairing of grad transfer Addison Hermstad and freshman Peyton Dueck. Together they have a record of 21-5, including 19-4 solely at the No. 3 spot. Of the 16 teams in this year's NCAA Tournament field, Cal Poly has played eight of them this season, including the Seminoles (28-9) twice. The Mustangs are 0-7 all-time against Florida State but the last time the two faced each other on April 15 in San Luis Obispo it was very close with the Seminoles just edging out the Mustangs, 3-2. Cal Poly is 1-4 all-time at the NCAA Tournament. The Mustangs have won seven matches against ranked opponents this season. The 2022 NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship will feature 16 teams for the first time in history. The first round will be single elimination, reducing the field to eight teams. After the first round, it resumes the typical bracket format with double elimination. The championship match will be played on Sunday, May 8th at 1 p.m. PT.
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — After winning its third straight Big West Championship to earn an automatic bid into this year's NCAA Tournament, the Cal Poly beach volleyball team has been slotted as the No. 12 seed and will face No. 5 seed Florida State in the first round of the tournament on Wednesday, May 4. The Mustangs will face the Seminoles at 1 p.m. PT Wednesday with the match airing live on ESPNU. The winner of the match will move on to play Friday, May 6 at 8 a.m. PT against the winner of LMU and Hawai'i. All the matches played on Wednesday and Friday will air on ESPNU. Saturday, May 7 and Sunday, May 8's matches will air on ESPN2. This will be Cal Poly's third trip to the NCAA Championships. The Mustangs made it for the first time in 2019 before making it last year where they earned the program's first win after beating Stanford 3-2. Cal Poly enters the tournament playing some of its best volleyball of the season. The Mustangs, who are 23-16 on the year, entered this weekend's Big West Tournament as the No. 3 seed but went 4-0, including beating No. 9 Hawai'i twice and No. 11 Long Beach State to three-peat as Big West champions and earn the automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. All five of the pairs who played this weekend finished with a combined record of 14-6. They were highlighted by the No. 3 pair of freshman Peyton Dueck and grad student Addison Hermstad as well as the No. 4 pair of redshirt senior Mariah Whalen and sophomore Piper Naess both going 4-0. The No. 1 pair of redshirt senior Tia Miric and freshman Ella Connor went 3-1, including having the championship-clinching win over Hawai'i. Miric and Connor have been stellar all year at the No. 1 spot. Together, they have the best record on the team at 26-12, the second most wins by a Cal Poly pair in a single season in program history which helped them both be named AVCA First Team All-Americans. The No. 2 pair of redshirt junior Jayelin Lombard and freshman Piper Ferch own the second most wins on the team with a 22-27 record. They had the come-from-behind duel-clinching victory on Friday night against Hawai'i to send Cal Poly into Saturday's championship. Lombard is a two-time All-Conference honoree who has played in each of Cal Poly's two previous NCAA Tournament appearances. One of the most reliable pairs in the lineup all year have been the No. 3 pairing of grad transfer Addison Hermstad and freshman Peyton Dueck. Together they have a record of 21-5, including 19-4 solely at the No. 3 spot. Of the 16 teams in this year's NCAA Tournament field, Cal Poly has played eight of them this season, including the Seminoles (28-9) twice. The Mustangs are 0-7 all-time against Florida State but the last time the two faced each other on April 15 in San Luis Obispo it was very close with the Seminoles just edging out the Mustangs, 3-2. Cal Poly is 1-4 all-time at the NCAA Tournament. The Mustangs have won seven matches against ranked opponents this season. The 2022 NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship will feature 16 teams for the first time in history. The first round will be single elimination, reducing the field to eight teams. After the first round, it resumes the typical bracket format with double elimination. The championship match will be played on Sunday, May 8th at 1 p.m. PT.
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