COLLEGIATE SAND VOLLEYBALL
Now, it’s offi cial S
Sand volleyball cleared as NCAA championship sport starting in 2016
and volleyball has been approved as the 90th full- fl edged NCAA championship sport to begin in spring of 2016.
Sand (or beach) volleyball, which was approved to become a championship by Division I in October, was also approved for Division II and Division III championship play in January. Sand volleyball will be the 90th NCAA championship sport. “The entire beach volleyball world has been watching the evolution of NCAA sand volleyball with great anticipation and excitement,” said Lori Okimura, chair of the USA Volley- ball Board of Directors. “An entire nation of girls’ volleyball players and coaches are turning to sand volleyball, inspired by the achievements of USA Volleyball Beach National Team athletes like three-time Olympic gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings and silver medalists April Ross and Jennifer Kessy, all of whom were successful NCAA student-athletes in vol- leyball before pursuing their professional beach careers.” Ross, who is one of the favorites with Walsh Jennings for Olympic gold in Rio de Janiero in 2016, was excited to hear the news.
“Beach volleyball as an NCAA sport is the pipeline link we’ve been missing,” Ross said. “I think this is going to help the sport become much more mainstream and create aware- ness about how awesome our sport is to watch and play at all levels. It’s so exciting for the future of our sport!” USA Volleyball has been holding college beach volleyball tournaments since 2006. It has also provided support to the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Sand Vol- leyball National Championship since the fi rst year in 2012. Athletes who have competed on USAV’s Junior Beach
Tour and as part of its Beach High Performance program have gone on to compete for college sand teams. USAV CEO Doug Beal was pleased to hear of the offi cal news. “Sand or beach volleyball has been one of the most popular events at the Olympic Games since its introduction in 1996 and we are sure that it will experience similar popularity and growth across the collegiate landscape very quickly,” Beal says. “We have seen a dramatic rise in our programming and participation at both the club, youth and junior level over the past few years, with participation more than doubling in just a few short years. More and more of the USAV regions are creating and supporting beach activities and more and more junior clubs are adding a beach alternative.” Sand volleyball is the fastest-growing NCAA sport with 50 schools sponsoring it as of January 2015. NCAA rules require 40 sponsoring institutions to request an NCAA championship.
72 | VOLLEYBALLUSA
Data shows that on average, 60 percent of participants at a sponsor- ing school participate only in sand volleyball, not in both sand and indoor volleyball.
Plans are in place to put together a six-person sand volleyball committee by late February or early March, which will set param- eters for selection, bracketing and seeding for the national collegiate championship. The NCAA hopes to identify host sites for this new champion- ship by fall 2015. It is anticipated that the championship will occur in early May each year.
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