The Hawaii beach volleyball team’s reward for its first Big West championship in six years was a matchup with – guess who – LMU.

UH learned Sunday it was assigned the 9 seed in the 17-team field in Gulf Shores, Ala., and will face 8 seed Loyola Marymount in the first round May 3.

LMU was UH’s first-round opponent each of the last two years when the Rainbow Wahine were selected as a tournament at-large team. The fifth-seeded Lions prevailed over 12 seed UH in both instances.

This year’s matchup of the Rainbow Wahine (24-11) and Lions (27-13) is at 7 a.m. Hawaii time and will be televised on ESPNU. LMU won the season opener between the teams, 4-1, on Feb. 22 in the Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Beach Classic at Queen's Beach.

UH is coming off a 3-2 comeback against Long Beach State in the Big West final. It has made seven of the eight NCAA beach tournaments since it was sanctioned as an NCAA sport.

USC, the three-time defending national champion, was given the No. 1 seed. Big West teams Cal Poly and Long Beach State were selected as at-large teams and assigned the Nos. 5 and 10 seeds.

Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.