SANTA MONICA, Calif. - The 2023 West Coast Conference Beach Volleyball Tournament will be held at Ocean Park Beach in Santa Monica, Calif. The event runs Thursday, April 27 to Friday, April 28.
The tournament returns to Santa Monica once again where all except one of the previous WCC Beach Volleyball Tournaments had been held except for 2021.
LMU is the defending three-time WCC Champion after capturing its inaugural title in 2019. The Lions upended three-time champion Pepperdine who did not drop a point in winning the debut event in 2016 and repeating in 2017 and 2018. The Lions beat Pepperdine twice in elimination matches on day two of the 2019 tournament to take the crown before topping the Waves in back-to-back matches once again in 2021 and 2022.
Two WCC programs are ranked in the top-20 in the most current AVCA beach volleyball rankings: No. 5 LMU and No. 19 Pepperdine. The Lions won both of the regular-season meetings over the Waves, 3-2, on April 15, and 3-2 on April 22.
LMU (25-8) enters the championship as the No. 1 seed and having won three of its last five. Seven of the Lions’ eight losses this season have come against top-5 squads.
No. 2 seed Pepperdine (16-12) enters championship weekend after competing against LMU and Washington last weekend in Los Angeles.
Pepperdine owns most of the WCC postseason history, highlighted by two AVCA National Championships in 2012 and 2014. The Waves competed in four-straight national championships from 2016-19, highlighted by an NCAA Runner-Up showing in 2017. After its third-straight WCC Championship last season, though, LMU put up a strong showing at NCAAs in 2022, eliminating Florida Atlantic and Georgia State, following a first-round win over Hawaii, before losing twice to Florida State.
2023 WCC Women’s Beach Volleyball Tournament Seedings:
- LMU
- Pepperdine
- Saint Mary's
- Santa Clara
- Portland
- San Francisco
- Pacific