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PROVO — BYU’s third-straight NCAA men’s volleyball tournament continues next week.
The Cougars opponent? TBD.
BYU will play the winner of Mountain Pacific Sports Federation rival UCLA (24-7) and EIVA champion Harvard (13-13) in a national semifinal May 3 at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles.
The championship match is scheduled for Saturday, May 5 in Los Angeles.
The Cougars (22-6) clinched an automatic bid to the tournament via its 3-1 win over then-No. 2 UCLA in Saturday night’s MPSF tournament championship match in Provo. The Cougars will play in their third-straight NCAA Tournament, a program record.
The Cougars held the second-best RPI in the country, strengthening its case for one of two byes handed out by the three-person selection committee. Long Beach State was rated first in the RPI, followed by BYU, UCLA, UC Irvine and Hawaii.
Top-ranked Long Beach State (26-1) will be the tournament’s No. 1 overall seed, clinching an automatic bid by virtue of its win over Hawaii in the Big West Tournament title match Saturday night.
MPSF Tournament Championship
No. 4 BYU men's volleyball tops No. 2 UCLA for MPSF title, autobid to NCAA Tournament
Brenden Sander totaled 18 kills and five blocks to lead the No. 4 BYU men’s volleyball by No. 2 UCLA, 17-25, 25-21, 25-18, 25-21 Saturday night in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championship match at the Smith Fieldhouse.The other autobids were MIVA champion Ohio State (23-5), Conference Carolinas champion King (23-5) and Harvard.
Ohio State has won the past two national championships, each time by sweeping BYU 3-0 in the championship match. But the two-time defending champion Buckeyes will host King in the tournament’s play-in match Thursday, April 26. The winner will join the other five teams in Los Angeles.
The winner will play UC Irvine (20-8), which earned one of two at-large bids by virtue of its RPI score. The winner of that first-round match will face top-seeded Long Beach in the semifinals.
NCAA men's volleyball tournament seeding
| Seed | Team | Record |
|---|---|---|
| No. 1 | Long Beach State | 26-1 |
| No. 2 | BYU | 22-6 |
| No. 3 | UCLA | 24-7 |
| No. 4 | UC Irvine | 21-9 |
| No. 5 | Harvard | 13-13 |
| No. 6 | Ohio State | 23-5 |
| No. 7 | King | 23-5 |
