HERMOSA BEACH, Calif. – Cool weather greeted the opening day of the USA Volleyball Collegiate Beach Championships at Hermosa Beach Pier. Pool play started for the 24-pair women’s field, and the men’s 11-team field.

In the women’s bracket, all six pools are led by teams from the top 11 seeds, including: No. 1 Kelly Claes/Sara Hughes (USC, Pool A); No. 11 Anika Wilson/Deahna Kraft (Pepperdine, Pool B); No. 3 Delaney Knudsen/Madalyn Roh (Pepperdine, Pool C); No. 10 Rachel Nieto/Kobi Pekich (Long Beach State, Pool D); No. 5 Corinne Quiggle/Brittany Howard (Pepperdine, Pool E); and No. 7 McKenna Witt/Madison Witt (Arizona, Pool F).

The men’s pools feature two ties in the three-team abbreviated Pool A. Two teams sitting at 1-0 after the first day: Lucas Yoder/Michael Saeta (USC/UC Irvine); and Louis Richard/Matt Butler (Long Beach State). In Pool B, UCLA’s Jackson Bantle/Hagen Smith are tied for tops, 2-0, with UC Irvine’s Reid Dominguez/Dillon Hoffman. In Pool C, Hawaii’s Brett Rosenmeier/Colton Cowell lead the way at 2-0.

Pool play for the women finishes on Friday at 10:30 a.m. PT. The men’s pool play action will conclude at 12 p.m. PT. Starting at noon the women, followed by the men, will have a play-in matches. The women for two spots into the round of 16 and the men for the fourth quarterfinal spot. The women will play through the round of 16 and quarterfinals on Friday, the men through the quarterfinals.

ABOUT THE EVENT
The top two teams out of each men’s pool will advance, the highest of the third-place finishers (according to point ratio) will advance. A play-in match will be played between the next two third-place finishers based on point ratio for the final single-elimination bracket spot.

In women’s play, there are six pools of four teams. At the conclusion of pool play, the top two of each pool will advance to single elimination. The two highest of the third-place pool finishers, based on their point ratio, will advance; the 3rd-6th ranked of the third-place pool finishers will play play-in matches to earn the final two Rd of 16 spots.

The USA Volleyball Collegiate Beach Championships is the first stop of the Team USA Summer Champions Series, presented by Comcast. The women’s final will air live on NBCSN at 6 p.m. ET on May 13. The men’s final will air taped delayed after the women’s match. The winners of the event will earn a spot on a USAV collegiate beach national team, which competes throughout the U.S. and abroad at FIVB events.

Athletes

Seed	WOMEN
	Player 1	Player 2	School
1	Kelly Claes	Sara Hughes	Southern California
2	Jessalyn Kinlaw	Megan Rice	Florida Atlantic
3	Delaney Knudsen	Madalyn Roh	Pepperdine
4	Terese Cannon	Nicolette Martin	Southern California
5	Corinne Quiggle	Brittany Howard	Pepperdine
6	Victoria Paranagua	Vanessa Freire	Florida State
7	McKenna Witt	Madison Witt	Arizona
8	Jenna Belton	Jo Kremer	Southern California
9	Abril Bustamante	Joy Dennis	Southern California
10	Rachel Nieto	Kobi Pekich	Long Beach State
11	Anika Wilson	Deahna Kraft	Pepperdine
12	Lindsey Knudsen	Payton Rund	Saint Mary’s College (CA)
13	Kamila Tan	Jordan Anderson	UCLA
14	Sarah Sponcil	Savannah Slattery	Loyola Marymount
15	Lily Justine	Madi Yeomans	UCLA
16	Leigh Andrew	Brooke Kuhlman	Florida State
17	Delaney Rohan	Chelsea Ross	Georgia State
18	Claire Coppola	Kristen Nuss	LSU
19	Macie Tendrich	Katie Zimmerman	South Carolina
20	Katie Smith	Adrianna Culbert	South Carolina
21	Olivia Powers	Katie Lindelow	LSU
22	Crissy Jones	Tia Scambray	Washington
23	Amy Neal	Jaelyn Greene	TCU
24	Hannah Hubbard	Emily Sonny	Cal Poly

Seed	MEN
	Player 1	Player 2	School
1	Lucas Yoder	Michael Saeta	Southern California/UC Irvine
2	Jackson Bantle	Hagen Smith	UCLA
3	Nathan Vander Meer	Logan Webber	Davenport/Cincinnati Christian
4	Grant Friedman	Scott Stadick	UC Irvine
5	Reid Dominguez	Dillon Hoffman	UC Irvine
6	Louis Richard	Matt Butler	Long Beach State
7	Tyler Hedley	Vincent Pizzuti	Palomar College/Long Beach State
8	Brian Ross	Bobby Costigan	Sacred Heart
9	Alex Vohland	Brett Cooper	Mount St. Joseph
10	Brett Rosenmeier	Colton Cowell	Hawaii
11	Matthew Yoshimoto	Jake Walenga	Lewis

Florida Atlantic Athletics Kinlaw and Rice drop two at the USAV Collegiate Beach Championships

Georgia State Athletics Rohan and Ross to represent Panthers at USAV Championships
LMU Athletics Sponcil, Slattery 1-1 on day one
LSU Athletics Beach pairs start strong to open up USAV Championships
Pepperdine Atheltics Waves undefeated to open USAV pairs championships
UCLA Athletics Bruins at inaugural collegiate beach pairs championships
Washington Athletics Jones And Scambray split on day one at USA pairs
USA Volleyball Collegiate Beach Championships well contested on day one