Cats Travel to Los Angeles for Pac-12 Beach Championships
04/27/2016 | Beach Volleyball
TUCSON, Ariz. – The sixth-ranked Arizona sand volleyball team heads to the first-ever Pac-12 Conference Beach Volleyball Championships this Thursday-Sunday, April 28-May 1 in Los Angeles, California at Merle Norman Stadium.
The Sand Cats (15-3), among other NCAA elite teams will be participating in this weekend's championships. No. 1 USC (26-2), No. 4 UCLA (17-4), Arizona State (11-11), California (16-9), Oregon (2-8), Stanford (5-10), and Washington (3-4) also comprise the eight teams that will contest for the first-ever conference title and the Pac-12's automatic berth in the inaugural NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship to be contested in Gulf Shores, Ala., May 6-8.
Arizona's No. 1 tandem of Madison and McKenna Witt (17-1) join, the No. 1 USC duo of Claes and Hughes (36-0), of USC's No. 1 duo, No. 4 UCLA's Megan and Nicole McNamara (11-7) and Arizona State's Bianca Arellano and Whitney Follette (15-9) in securing top four seeds in the Pairs Bracket. The Witt twins are a No. 2 seed in the Pairs event, while the McNamara's are the No. 3 seed-should they win both of their Thursday matches, the two sets of twins could meet in semifinal match on Friday at 10 a.m. PT on Pac-12 Networks.
In the Pairs Beach Championships, the Wildcats No. 2 pair of Jianna Bonomi and Katarina Schulz will compete against Stanford's Hayley Hodson and Payton Chang at 1 p.m. on Thursday. The No. 1 Witt twins will take on Oregon's Lindsey VanderWeide and Martenne Bettendorf later that day at 2 p.m. On Friday, the Arizona sand volleyball team with take on Stanford at 5 p.m. as they compete to win the title of Pac-12 Team Champions. The Pac-12 Championships will crown a team champion and will also produce a pairs' winner.
Play begins with the 16-team pairs' championship first round on Thursday, April 28, at 1 p.m. PT. Round of 16 and quarterfinal matches will be played on the first day. On Friday, April 29, the Pac-12 Networks will broadcast the semifinals and the championship match at 10 and 11 a.m. PT respectively. At 1 p.m., the team competition begins with a top seed vs. the No. 8 seed. The double-elimination bracket will run through Saturday and conclude with semifinals at 9 a.m. on Sunday, May 1, and the title match set for 4 p.m. PT. All four of Sunday's duals will be carried on Pac-12 Networks.
Admission to each of the four days of competition is free and parking is available at USC's PSX and PS2 parking structures on campus for $12.
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