Big West Women First Up

The revamped Big West Conference tournaments, with automatic NCAA tournament berths at stake, begin tonight with women’s games at the Lawlor Events Center. Men’s play starts Friday.

This is the first season for a six-team tournament field, down from 10. Conference champions and second-place finishers have first-round byes.

In the women’s bracket, fourth-seeded Pacific (16-11 and 11-7 in conference) and fifth-seeded Long Beach State (15-12, 10-8) open play at 6 p.m. The game between third-seeded New Mexico State (19-9, 14-4) and sixth-seeded UC Irvine (12-15, 7-11), last season’s tournament champion, is scheduled at 8 p.m. or 30 minutes after the first game ends.

The Pacific-Long Beach winner plays top-seeded UC Santa Barbara (22-5, 17-1) in the semifinals Friday at 12:30 p.m. Second-seeded Hawaii (21-5, 15-3) faces the New Mexico State-Irvine winner in the other semifinal at 2:30 p.m. The championship is Saturday at 1 p.m.

“Everybody starts 0-0,” Irvine Coach Colleen Matsuhara said. “It’s just a matter of who becomes hot or who gets lucky.”

In men’s play Friday, fourth-seeded Utah State (16-14, 10-8) and fifth-seeded Nevada (16-12, 9-9), the tournament host, begin at 6 p.m. Third-seeded Pacific (15-11, 11-7), the Big West’s hottest team at the end of the regular season, and sixth-seeded San Jose State (10-16, 9-9) are scheduled at 8 p.m.

Top-seeded Long Beach State (17-10, 12-6), which last season won its second tournament in three seasons, plays the Utah State-Nevada winner in the semifinals Saturday at 6 p.m. Second-seeded Irvine (15-11, 11-7), among the most successful tournament teams under Coach Rod Baker, faces the Pacific-San Jose winner at approximately 9 p.m. The championship game is Sunday at noon.

“I think Long Beach has the best athletes,” Pacific Coach Bob Thomason said. “But I think we can beat them.”