The 2016 NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship was the first annual tournament to determine the national champion of

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...

women's collegiate

beach volleyball Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two or more players on a sand court divided by a net. Similar to indoor volleyball, the objective of the game is to send the ball over the net and to ground it on the opponent's side of th ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. The tournament was played on the beaches of

Gulf Shores, Alabama Gulf Shores is a resort city in Baldwin County, Alabama, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the population was 9,741. Geography Gulf Shores is located on the Gulf of Mexico at 30°16'4.069" North, 87°42'5.285" West (30.267797, −87.7 ...

, hosted by the

University of Alabama at Birmingham The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) is a public research university in Birmingham, Alabama. Developed from an academic extension center established in 1936, the institution became a four-year campus in 1966 and a fully autonomous univ ...

, from May 6–8, 2016. The

American Volleyball Coaches Association The American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) is an organization of over 6,000 members, incorporated as a private non-profit educational corporation in 1981, as the Collegiate Volleyball Coaches Association. It is currently headquartered in ...

(AVCA) had previously sponsored a beach volleyball championship prior to the NCAA's sanctioning of the sport in 2015.

USC USC most often refers to: * University of South Carolina, a public research university ** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses ** South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program * University of ...

defeated

Florida State Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the sta ...

in the championship match, 3 sets to 0, to clinch the inaugural national title. This was the Trojans' second consecutive national title, having won the last AVCA tournament before the change in the event's sponsor.

Qualification

There is only one national championship for beach volleyball, so all sixty

beach volleyball programs, whether from the Division I, Division II, and Division III, were eligible for the tournament field. A total of eight teams were ultimately invited to contest this championship. Three bids were awarded to the top three teams in both the East and West Regions, and two at-large bids were awarded to the best remaining teams from either region.

Teams

Format

All eight teams were subsequently seeded and paired accordingly in the first round of a double-elimination style tournament to be played across a three-day span. Matches were won by the first team to win three-of-five sets.

Bracket

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ncaa Beach Volleyball Championship

NCAA Men's Volleyball Championship The NCAA men's volleyball tournament, officially titled the NCAA National Collegiate Men's Volleyball Championship, is an annual competition that determines the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championship in American college men ...

Qualification

Teams

Format

Bracket

See also

References