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.No. 3 UCLA Falls Just Short in National Title Match, UCLABruins.com, May 5, 2018
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.
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 School Conference Record Berth Long Beach State Big West 26–1 Tournament champion King Conference Carolinas 23–5 Tournament champion Harvard EIVA 13–13 Tournament champion Ohio State MIVA 23–5 Tournament champion BYU MPSF 22–6 Tournament champion UC Irvine Big West 21–9 At-largeUCLA MPSF 24–7 At-large
Tournament bracket
The seven teams were seeded according to the same methods used to seed the teams in previous tournaments. As in recent tournaments, the top two seeds will receive byes into the semifinals.NCAA Men's Volleyball Committee announces championship selections, NCAA.com, April 22, 2018. Retrieved April 23, 2018
The bottom two seeds contested a "play-in" match on April 26 at the 6 seed's home court. Two quarterfinal matches were held at Pauley Pavilion on the campus of UCLA on May 1. (#4 vs. play-in winner; #3 vs. #5 seed) The semifinals were held at Pauley Pavilion on May 3. (#1 vs. #4–play-in winner; #2 vs. #3–#5 winner) The 2018 NCAA Championship match was held at Pauley Pavilion on May 5.
Schedule and results Time2018 NCAA men's volleyball tournament Bracket, Turner Sports, April 22, 2018. Retrieved April 23, 2018MatchupScoreAttendanceBroadcasters Opening Round – Thursday, April 26 7:00 pm Ohio State vs. King 3-0(25–13, 25–23, 25–18) 1,023 Charlie Danis & Hanna Williford (BTN+) Quarterfinals – Tuesday, May 18:00 pm UC Irvine vs. Ohio State2–3(19–25, 25–22, 23–25, 25–22, 14–16) 1,691Darren Preston & Denny Cline (P12+ UCLA)11:05 pmUCLA vs.Harvard3–1(23–25, 25–21, 25–11, 25–21) Semifinals – Thursday, May 38:00 pm Long Beach State vs. Ohio State 3–1(25–22, 25–23, 25–27, 32–30)4,249Lincoln Rose (NCAA.com)10:30 pm BYU vs. UCLA1–3(22–25, 26–24, 27–29, 19–25) National Championship – Saturday, May 57:00 pmLong Beach State vs. 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 TJ DeFalco – Long Beach State Kyle Ensing – Long Beach State Daenan Gyimah – UCLA Jake Hanes – Ohio State Micah Maʻa – UCLA Nicolas Szerszeń – Ohio State Josh Tuaniga – Long Beach State (Most Outstanding Player)
References