STANFORD, Calif. – For the fifth consecutive season, Stanford beach volleyball will compete at the NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship, the NCAA announced Sunday morning on NCAA.com. The Cardinal will kick off its run to the championship match as the tournament’s No. 3 seed with a matchup against No. 14 seed Boise State on Friday, May 2 at 12 p.m. PT.
Stanford is the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation’s automatic qualifier after winning the inaugural MPSF Conference Championship, held April 23–25 in Huntington Beach, Calif. The Cardinal did not lose a match in the double-elimination tournament, upsetting No. 1 UCLA and defeating No. 5 USC twice on its path to the league title.
Stanford will meet the Broncos for the fifth time, most recently facing off in 2018, when the Cardinal swept the Broncos 5-0 at home on March 10.
The Cardinal enters the NCAA Championship tying its highest-ever seed, having previously been ranked No. 3 (2024), No. 6 (2021), and twice earning the No. 9 seed (2022 and 2023).
Stanford’s 2025 campaign built an impressive résumé heading into the national championship tournament. The Cardinal’s 31 victories throughout 2025 included 18 wins over ranked opponents and 11 top-10 victories.
The 2025 NCAA beach volleyball championship bracket consists of 16 teams, with eight earning automatic bids through conference championships and eight selected with at-large berths. Selected teams were seeded Nos. 1–16 in the bracket based on the program’s resumes throughout the 2025 season.
The championship will be played in single-elimination duals, with 10 student-athletes split into five pairs per team. Each dual match is formatted into five best-of-three sets, with each pairs match earning one point.
The MPSF sends four teams to the championship in its inaugural season. UCLA enters as the No. 1 seed, USC as the No. 5 seed, and California as the No. 10 seed.
No. 2 seed TCU, No. 4 seed LMU, No. 6 seed Cal Poly, No. 7 seed Texas, No. 8 seed Florida State, No. 9 seed Long Beach State, No. 11 seed LSU, No. 12 seed North Florida, No. 13 seed Florida Atlantic, No. 15 seed Georgia State and No. 16 seed Chattanooga round out the championship field.
For more information about the NCAA Championship, including the official bracket and ticket links, please visit the NCAA’s official championship site.