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LOS ANGELES -- The UCLA Bruins open their fourth season of beach volleyball this weekend at the Pepperdine Kick Off in Malibu, Calif., on March 5-6. The Bruins enter the 2016 season ranked 6th in the AVCA Preseason Poll and 7th in the DiG Magazine Women's Beach Volleyball Preseason Poll. UCLA won a school-record 10 duals last year, finishing the season with a 10-5 record.
PEPPERDINE KICK OFF
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 11:30 a.m. on March 5. The 49ers are currently ranked No. 4 in the nation. UCLA will end the day with No. 3 Hawai'i at 2:00 p.m. The Bruins will conclude the event with reigning national champions No. 1 USC on March 6 at 10:15 a.m. and semifinalists No. 2 Pepperdine at 12:45 a.m.
TOUGH SCHEDULE
In addition to playing the top four teams in collegiate beach volleyball in its opening weekend, the Bruins will face a total of eight of the other nine teams ranked in the preseason Top 10 by AVCA and by DiG Magazine, some of them multiple times during the season.
INFUSION OF YOUTH
The Bruins have six freshmen on the team and another three newcomers from the indoor squad that are looking to make an immediate impact in 2016. Identical twins Nicole McNamara and Megan McNamara (Vancouver, BC, Canada) will likely be the Bruins' top pair and should contribute right away. Izzy Carey (Westlake Village, Calif.) and Zana Muno (Hermosa Beach, Calif.) are also vying for immediate spots. Sophomore Reily Buechler (Del Mar, Calif.) and junior Jordan Anderson (Flower Mound, Texas), like Muno, are from the Bruins' indoor team and all three will be pushing the veterans to see some action on the sand.
RETURNING VETERANS
The Bruins return 10 letterwinners from last year's squad, all vying for playing time. Headlining the group of veterans is senior Kamila Tan (San Diego, Calif.), who advanced to the 2015 AVCA National Pairs Championship. With her partner now graduated, she will be teaming up with another Bruin for her final season. UCLA also returns three other seniors in Julie Consani (Newport Beach, Calif.), Karly Drolson (Del Mar, Calif.) and Rachel Inouye (Kailua, Hawai'i). Junior Laurel Weaver (Winnetka, Calif.) and sophomores Elise Zappia (Huntington Beach, Calif.) and Ivey Schmitt (Encinitas, Calif.) both saw significant action a year ago and should do the same this season.
PAC-12 OFFICIALLY ADDS BEACH VOLLEYBALL
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 beach 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 established NCAA qualification requirements.
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP INFORMATION
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.
Tickets to the 2016 NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship are on sale now exclusively here.