 Logo | |
| Teams | 16 |
|---|---|
| Format | Mix of single- and double-elimination |
| Finals site | Gulf Place Public Beach Gulf Shores, Alabama |
| Champions | USC Trojans (4th title) |
| Runner-up | Florida State Seminoles |
| Winning coach | Dain Blanton (2nd title) |
| Attendance | 10,151 (last 3 days) |
| Television | ESPN2, ESPN3 and ESPNU |
The 2022 NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship (officially the 2022 National Collegiate Beach Volleyball Championship[1]) was an intercollegiate tournament to determine the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) women's beach volleyball national champion for the 2021–22 season. The sixth edition of the tournament was held from May 4 to 8, 2022, at Gulf Place Public Beach in Gulf Shores, Alabama. The 2022 championship featured a 16-team field for the first time, doubled from previous years, as well as the addition of an opening knockout round before the traditional eight-team double-elimination bracket. Eight of the participating schools automatically qualified by winning their respective conference tournaments, while the other eight were given either a regional or an at-large bid by the NCAA Women's Beach Volleyball Committee. The tournament was broadcast on ESPN2, ESPN3 and ESPNU.
Defending champion USC Trojans were the pre-tournament favorites and entered as the top seed. They had a lineup that included the likes of 2020 Olympian Tina Graudina and then-reigning U19 world champions Megan Kraft and Delaynie Maple. The Trojans had a dominant run in the championship, dropping just one individual pairs match en route to the final. The biggest tournament upsets came from the tenth-seeded Georgia State Panthers, who beat the seventh-seeded Grand Canyon Antelopes and the second-seeded TCU Horned Frogs before being knocked out of the elimination bracket by the Loyola Marymount Lions. Meanwhile, scheduling changes due to inclement weather meant that the Florida State Seminoles ended up playing three duals on the third day of competition; the Seminoles suffered a loss to USC in the winners bracket before overcoming the LSU Tigers, Loyola Marymount Lions and UCLA Bruins in the elimination bracket to set up a rematch against the Trojans. In the championship dual, USC defeated Florida State 3–1 to win their fourth NCAA title. The final three days of the NCAA championship were attended by a live audience of 10,151, setting a new tournament record.