Volleyball Tournament of Champions Is Canceled

Saturday’s Tournament of Champions, the largest high school volleyball invitational in California, has been canceled, coordinator Neil Newman said Thursday.

Seventy teams were scheduled to participate, including Edison, the seventh-ranked team in Orange County, and ninth-ranked Esperanza. Also, schools from San Francisco and San Diego were scheduled to play.

The tournament was canceled because of a scheduling conflict at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion, the site of the annual event for the past four years, said Newman, the boys’ volleyball coach at Los Angeles University High School.

According to Katie Abbott, operations manager at Pauley Pavilion, the arena is reserved on April 25 for Spring Sing, a variety show performed by UCLA students.

“On-campus organizations have first crack at the facilities,” Abbott said. “We won’t bump an outside organization once it reserves a facility, but we must get a reservation approval in writing.

“There was a misunderstanding with the scheduling of the facility for the volleyball tournament,” Abbott said. “Spring Sing is an annual event held at the same time every year, and Pauley Pavilion has been booked on April 25 for Spring Sing since early January.”

Though Spring Sing will be held in the Los Angeles Tennis Center, UCLA’s on-campus tennis stadium, Abbott said Pauley is reserved so the event may be moved indoors if there is bad weather Saturday.

Newman explored other possibilities, such as using UCLA’s John Wooden Center, the men’s gymnasium, and various high school gymnasiums in the Los Angeles area. But no alternative plan was deemed workable, Newman said.

“Obviously, there was a misunderstanding, but I hope UCLA will allow us to return in the future,” Newman said.