STANFORD, Calif. – For the sixth 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. 1 seed with a matchup against No. 16 seed Chattanooga at 8 a.m. PT Friday, May 2.
Stanford is one of eight at-large bids for the tournament after finishing its run at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championship in the semifinals.
Stanford will meet Chattanooga for the first time in program history.
The Cardinal enters the NCAA Championship with its highest-ever seed, having previously been ranked No. 3 (2024 and 2025), No. 6 (2021) and No. 9 (2022 and 2023).
Stanford’s 2026 campaign has been a historic one, setting a new school record for single-season wins (36) and spending the entire year as the No. 1 or No. 2-ranked team in the nation. The Cardinal’s 36 victories throughout 2026 included 25 wins over ranked opponents and 17 top-10 victories.
The 2026 NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship bracket consists of 16 teams, with eight earning automatic bids through conference championships and eight at-large selections. Teams were seeded Nos. 1-16 in the bracket based on their resumes throughout the 2026 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 six teams to the championship in its second season. Texas enters as the No. 2 seed, UCLA as the No. 3 seed, USC as the No. 4 seed, California as the No. 8 seed, and Grand Canyon as the No. 11 seed.
No. 5 seed Florida State, No. 6 seed Cal Poly, No. 7 seed LMU, No. 9 seed Long Beach State, No. 10 seed TCU, No. 12 seed Stetson, No. 13 seed Texas A&M Corpus Christi, No. 14 seed Tulane and No. 15 seed Georgia State 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.