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SANTA MONICA, Calif. – Alongside six fellow competitors from the West Coast Conference, the San Francisco beach volleyball team embarks on a quest for an historic first-ever WCC Championship as play gets underway Friday at Ocean Park Beach.

The Dons, seeded No. 2 in the brackets after finishing the regular season with an overall record of 14-3 and ranked 13th in the nation, looks to come away with the league crown in the inaugural season of beach volleyball as an NCAA-sanctioned sport.

"We are thrilled to be making history here," noted head coach Eyal Zimet. "Every single player on this roster this year is going to be the first ever to play a WCC Championship in beach volleyball, and that's huge for us as a program and it's huge for the players individually. We are privileged to be in the WCC, as one of the first conferences in the nation to try to lead this wave of beach volleyball in college instead of being on the coattails. It's great to be a part of it."

The Dons take on No. 7 Portland in the tournament's first round, slated for 10:30 a.m. USF faced off with the Pilots earlier in the season, garnering a 5-0 decision on March 9.

"It was an interesting day, to say the least," Zimet recalled of the first meeting on the sand between the two squads. "It was cold, and it was rainy for most of the day with very challenging conditions at Piper Park. For Portland it was basically the second competition of their career, and we could see between the competition with us and the next game they had that same day against San Jose State you could already see improvement.

"They're all smart players they have a smart coaching staff, and they will come and battle and swing. I have no doubt it's going to be difficult. It's up to our players to make sure we're taking care of business on our end, on our side of the court."

In the second round of the brackets, USF will meet up with either No. 3 Santa Clara or No. 6 Loyola Marymount. The Dons took the narrow 3-2 win over the Broncos on March 12, but Santa Clara was able to turn the tables with their own 3-2 victory on April 2 in Santa Cruz. Should USF advance to play the Lions, it will be the second meeting in program history between the two squads. Last year, then-No. 14 Loyola Marymount earned a 4-1 victory over the Dons at Southern Cal on April 9, 2015.

If the Dons defeat Portland in the first round, USF will play its next match Friday at noon. In the event of a loss to the Pilots, USF's elimination game would come at 1:30 p.m. Play will continue into the afternoon on Friday, and conclude on Saturday.

Sitting on the opposite side of the bracket is second-ranked Pepperdine, the No. 1 seed, who earned a first round bye, No. 4 Saint Mary's and No. 5 Pacific. USF has not faced the 16-3 Waves this season, but the Dons boast a 3-0 record over their WCC foes seeded in the top half of the bracket.

"We had an amazing preseason, in terms of the preparation, conditioning, team bonding, experiences early in the morning with cold, rain, wind, and it paid off for us," added Zimet. "I think we had a great start to the season, and the toughness we built showed early on in the season.

"We are happy to get the No. 2 seed, but we're not looking at it as anything but a number going into every single match. Every team is relatively fresh and anything can happen, we just need to take care of our side. We had a good week of practice, and we can't wait to step on the sand in Santa Monica and get it going on Friday."

The WCC Championship event is free and open to the public, and spectators are encouraged to attend.