The remaining at-large team will be selected using the following criteria (in no priority order):
a. Won-lost record;
b. Strength of schedule;
• head-to-head competition
• home and away records
• results against common opponents
• results against teams already qualified and other teams under consideration; and
c. Eligibility and availability of student-athletes for NCAA championships.

Long Beach is favored in head-to-head competition, both had identical 18-4 regular season records, but BYU is favored in results against teams already qualified (Pepperdine). Nothing about how a team finishes the season. Looks like Long Beach to me.

Is IS Long Beach who was swept by Pepperdine on Thursday…interesting. Wounded but not dead…the most dangerous animal.

Well, by now I found out that Long Beach qualified for the at-large berth. Still, I favored the BYU Cougars as they took Pepperdine to the max, five long sets, while Long Beach was swept in three straight. However, since Long Beach defeated BYU twice in regular season (though Long Beach had the home court advantage both times), the nod went to Long Beach. Too bad because BYU had such fun players, especially Ivan Perez, and I would have loved to see him jump serve aces and spike thos rockets in a national championship match. I’ll root for Pepperdine instead.