Rainbow Warriors seeded second in NCAA volleyball tournament

DENIS POROY / SPECIAL TO STAR-ADVERTISER

University of Hawaii players celebrate after winning the Big West Men’s Volleyball Championship against UC Irvine Saturday night in Irvine, Calif. UH won the championship and has been seeded second in the National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship on May 4 in a semifinal match at George Mason’s EagleBank Arena.

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IRVINE, Calif. >> Hawaii will have to win two matches in Fairfax, Va., to claim a third straight NCAA men’s volleyball championship.

The Rainbow Warriors were awarded the second seed in the seven-team bracket and will open the National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship on May 4 in a semifinal match at George Mason’s EagleBank Arena. The match is set for 1:30 p.m.

UH, the two-time defending national champion, will face the winner of a May 2 second-round match between Penn State and the survivor of the April 30 first-round matchup of Ohio State and King.

UH (28-2) claimed a second consecutive Big West tournament title and an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament with a four-set win over UC Irvine on Saturday at the Bren Events Center.

The Warriors (28-2) were on their way back to Honolulu when the NCAA tournament bracket was revealed this morning. They will enter the NCAA tournament with an 11-match win streak.

The top two seeds in the NCAA tournament bracket receive byes into the semifinals on May 4. The championship match is set for May 6 at 11 a.m. The semifinal matches will be streamed on NCAA.com. The championship match will be televised on ESPN2.

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The No. 1 seed in the NCAA bracket went to Mountain Pacific Sports Federation champion UCLA. UH was granted the second seed over Penn State, the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association champion.

The two at-large berths went to Long Beach State, which shared the Big West regular-season title with UH, and Grand Canyon of the MPSF. The Beach and Antelopes meet in a second-round match for the right to face UCLA.

UCLA, Penn State and Hawaii faced each other in the Outrigger Volleyball Invitational on March 9-11 a SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center. UCLA opened the tournament with a win over Penn State, which then handed UH its first loss of the season. The Warriors rebounded with a four-set win over UCLA in the tournament finale.

Ohio State won the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association’s automatic bid with a four-set win over Ball State on Saturday. King edged North Greenville in five sets for the Conference Carolinas title.