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The field is set for the college men’s beach volleyball national event.
USA Volleyball announced Wednesday that pairs from UCLA, Penn State, Florida State, Hawai’i, Pepperdine, UC Irvine, Concordia-Irvine and Quincy will compete in the second annual Collegiate Beach Championships.
Among the participants in this tournament includes eight current college players — Pepperdine’s Robert Mullahey, Concordia-Irvine’s Raymond Barsemian, Hawai’i’s Brett Rosenmeier and Colton Cowell, UC Irvine’s Grant Friedman and JB Kam and Penn State’s Will Bantle and Matt McLaren
Bantle and McLaren at No. 2 are the highest seed of any team with current college players. Former USC outside attacker Lucas Yoder and former UCLA setter Hagen Smith are representing UCLA and are the No. 1 seed for the tournament.
The Collegiate Beach Championships will begin with the pool-play matches on Thursday. The top-six pairs will advance to the three-round, single-elimination bracket with the championship match on Sunday.
The championship match will air tape delayed on the Olympic Channel at 6:30 p.m. (CST)
The championship pair also will clinch the U.S. berth to the beach volleyball World University Championsip that begins July in Germany.
Collegiate Beach Championships men’s pairs
No. 1 seed: Hagen Smith and Lucas Yoder, UCLA
No. 2 seed: Will Bantle and Matt McLaren, Penn State
No. 3 seed: Jon Justice and Adam Wienckowski, Florida State
No. 4 seed: Brett Rosenmeier and Colton Cowell, Hawai’i
No. 5 seed Robert Mullahey and Owen Yoshimoto, Pepperdine
No. 6 seed Grant Friedman and JB Kam, UC Irvine
Not seeded: Raymond Barsemian and Chandler Gibb, Concordia-Irvine
Not seeded: Collin Merk and Anthony Winter, Quincy