NCAA Women’s Volleyball Playoffs : UCLA to Defend Ranking Against the Best of the West

The top-ranked UCLA women’s volleyball team, which swept through the regular season undefeated, will play host to California tonight in the first round of the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. Division I playoffs. The match begins at 7:30 at the John Wooden Center.

UCLA, 31-0 overall and 18-0 as the Pacific 10 Conference champion, is the only undefeated team in the country, and 1 of 32 teams in the national championship tournament. UCLA Coach Andy Banachowski, who last led the Bruins to a national title in 1984, has won 4 national championships in his 22 years at the school.

Cal (19-11, 7-11) has lost to the Bruins twice this season.

The Bruins began the season with victories over Illinois and Hawaii, rated Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, in the preseason rankings, and have won 20 of their 31 matches in 3 games. They have won 10 of their last 13 matches in 3 games. Only two teams have forced the Bruins to 5 games.

UCLA had its most serious trouble with No. 2-ranked Stanford, which put up a fight before losing to the Bruins last month. Another tough team is Brigham Young, which UCLA defeated last week, 16-14, 18-16, 15-13. Both Stanford and BYU are in UCLA’s regional bracket.

In an effort to promote parity, the NCAA assigns, rather than seeds, 8 teams each to 4 regions--the West, Northwest, Mideast and South. West Coast schools, however, account for 17 of the 32 teams in the opening round, with 7 teams from the Pac-10 and 8 teams representing the Big West, including Cal State Long Beach (25-6), defending national champion Hawaii (29-2), UC Santa Barbara (17-16), UC Irvine (19-11) and San Diego State (25-11).

Pepperdine (16-15) is the lone representative from the West Coast Athletic Conference.

Opening rounds began Thursday at 16 sites and will continue through Saturday. Regional competition is scheduled for Dec. 8-11 at sites to be determined. If UCLA beats Cal, it will serve as host of the West regional. Each regional winner advances to the Final Four Dec. 15-17 at Minnesota.