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LOS ANGELES -- The UCLA Bruins will open its fourth official season of beach volleyball in 2016 on March 5-6 at the Pepperdine Kick Off in Malibu, Calif. UCLA will square off with four teams in its opening weekend that all made the eight-team field at last year's 2015 AVCA Sand Volleyball National Championships. UCLA will open with runner-up Long Beach State at 10:30 a.m. on March 5 and conclude the day with Hawai'i at 1:00 p.m. The Bruins will conclude the event with reigning national champions USC on March 6 at 9:15 a.m. and semifinalists Pepperdine at 11:45 a.m.

UCLA will host CSUN on March 10 at Annenberg Beach House at Santa Monica State Beach at 9:00 a.m. before facing another AVCA Tournament team from last year in Florida State at 11:00 a.m.

The official home opener on campus at Sunset Canyon Beach Courts will be on March 12 when Arizona visits for a 10:00 a.m. dual match.

UCLA will then head to Florida to face six teams, including two more that made the AVCA National Championships. That means that UCLA will have faced 7-of-8 teams in last year's field in the first 13 duals of the 2016 season. The Bruins will be in Boca Raton, Fla., on March 23 to face Tulane at 7:00 a.m. and at Florida Atlantic at 11:00 a.m. UCLA will then head to DeLand, Fla., to participated in the Stetson Beach Invitational on March 25-26. First up is another AVCA semifinalist from a year ago in FIU at 6:00 a.m. on March 25. The Bruins will end the day with Florida State at 12:00 p.m. for the second meeting of the season. UCLA will open play on March 26 with another meeting with Florida Atlantic at 7:30 a.m. and will finish with its seventh AVCA team from last year when it plays at Stetson at 10:30 a.m.

The Bruins will return home to host Pepperdine at Sunset Canyon on March 30 at 3:00 p.m. The match will be the first televised event of the year, live on Pac-12 Los Angeles.

UCLA will then travel to Honolulu, Hawaii to face Hawai'i on April 2 at 8:00 p.m. as part of the Outrigger Beach Volleyball Challenge before taking part in the USAV Hermosa Beach Tournament from April 9-10.

The home finale will pair the Bruins against Long Beach State again on April 13 for a 3:00 p.m. meeting live on Pac-12 Los Angeles.

The Bruins will conclude the regular season with a road date at CSUN on April 20 at 2:30 p.m. in Northridge, Calif.

Beach volleyball has been added as the 23rd Pac-12-sponsored sport beginning in the 2015-16 academic year. With eight member institutions (Arizona, Arizona State, California, Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, USC and Washington) currently fielding beach volleyball teams, the Conference of Champions is the first major conference to sponsor sand volleyball as an official sport.

As part of the addition, the Pac-12 will also sponsor a Beach Volleyball Championship from April 28 to May 1, 2016 with USC serving as the hosts. The format of which will be determined based upon the to-be-established NCAA qualification requirements.

The NCAA® Beach Volleyball Committee selected the host site for the inaugural National Collegiate Beach Volleyball Championship. The NCAA's 90th and newest National Championship will debut May 6-8, 2016 at the Gulf Shores Public Beach and will be hosted by the city of Gulf Shores, Alabama and Orange Beach Sports Commission.

The host institution for the inaugural beach volleyball championship will be the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The university and Gulf Shores have also been chosen as the hosts of the 2017 championship, which will be held May 5-7, 2017.

Beach volleyball is the fastest-growing NCAA sport with 47 sponsoring schools. The addition of the beach volleyball championship will become the 45th NCAA championship administered for women. The championship will have an eight-team bracket that will be played in a double-elimination format with teams consisting of five pairs of female student-athletes. After being placed on the list of emerging sports for women in 2009, beach volleyball is the fifth sport to succeed from the emerging sports program.