At the end of the first day of the inaugural NCAA beach volleyball championship little is set in stone. Little, that is except the end of Stetson and Georgia State’s seasons. The No. 7 and No. 8 seed lost to USC and Florida State 3-0 in the first round, respectively, and then went on to drop tightly contested 3-2 decisions to Arizona and UCLA in the second.

UCLA, which eked out the win over Stetson only hours after its first-round 3-0 loss to Hawaii, will line up across the net from Pepperdine tomorrow in the contenders’ bracket. The Waves defeated Arizona in the first round, but lost 3-0 to USC.



The biggest battle of the day took place between tournament No.1 seed Florida State and Hawaii. The Seminoles went down 0-2 out of the gate, dropping matches on courts three and four, but Florida State’s No. 4 team Katie Horton and Annie Montgomery staved off the 3-0 sweep, defeating Hawaii’s Lara Schreiber and Hannah Zalopany decidedly 21-16, 21-12. Victoria Paranagua and Nina Pellitteri kept the momentum rolling on court two to defeat the Rainbow Wahine’s Nikki Taylor and Ka’iwi Schucht 21-15, 21-16.

The match on court one would decide who moved on to face USC in the semis and who got relegated to the contenders’ bracket. Hawaii’s Katie Spieler and Emily Maglio won the first set 21-14 over FSU’s Julie Brown and Jace Pardon, but the Seminoles turned things around, taking the second and third 21-17, 16-14.



Florida State’s victory sets up an epic battle between East and West Coast powerhouses in tomorrow’s semifinal at 4 p.m. ET. Meanwhile in the contenders’ bracket, Hawaii will take on Arizona in hopes of staying alive and challenging the winner of the Pepperdine/UCLA match.

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Watch the tournament live on ncaa.com starting at noon ET and on truTV between 3 and 6 p.m. ET .