Beach Volleyball State Championships Kick Off On Friday
State Championship Pairs Bracket
by Chris Huerta, CCCSIA
A lot has changed over the last year as the CCCAA approaches their second ever CCCAA Women's Beach Volleyball State Championships this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The inaugural season saw 12 teams compete during the beach volleyball season with this year having 24 schools from four different conferences vying for the title. However, despite all the changes this year's Team Championship has the same four teams as 2015 with Irvine Valley College, Grossmont College, Golden West College and Cabrillo College once again meeting at state.
Top seeded Irvine Valley College comes in with a deceiving 11-6 overall record thanks to competing against multiple NCAA schools throughout the season. The defending state and 2016 OEC Champions swept through conference play with a record of 7-0 and won their Regional 5-0 and 4-1 over Bakersfield and Mira Costa respectively. They also defeated the third seeded Golden West College 4-1 in OEC play this year.
State Championship host Grossmont College comes in as the inaugural state runner-up and current Pacific Coast Conference Champions. Having played a state-high 24 matches, Grossmont is 21-3 overall and enters the championship off regional victories over Fullerton (4-1) and Ventura (5-0)
Golden West College returns to the Women's Beach Volleyball State Championships as the only team to advance that did not host their regional. Carrying a 10-3 record, GWC avenged an early season loss to regional host El Camino College by upsetting them 3-2 to go along with a 4-1 win over San Diego Mesa to advance. They will look to avenge another regular season loss that came at the hands of IVC in conference play.
The final team competing for the team championship is Cabrillo College who will represent the North for the second straight year. A perfect 10-0 overall and in conference play, Cabrillo defeated Gavilan College and Feather River College both by a score of 4 sets to 1.
The round robin team tournament begins Friday with Irvine Valley taking on Cabrillo followed by Grossmont against Golden West.
On the pairs side of the CCCAA Women's State Beach Volleyball State Championship 19 different schools will send a pairing to compete to be State Champions. The 32 pair bracket includes 7 schools sending multiple pairs with El Camino College sending a state-high 4 teams.
This will be the first year of the single bracket format with the first two rounds set for Saturday and the Quarters, Semis and Championship match scheduled for Sunday. Be sure to follow CCCAASports.com for full results and updates.
photo by On My Game Photography