Cal Poly adding beach volleyball as an NCAA sport

Sand Volleyball seems like it will be fun to watch. By Matthew Brown aka Morven via Wikimedia Commons

Earlier this month, Cal Poly Athletics announced that it will be adding sand (beach) volleyball as an NCAA sport, with competitions happening in the Spring. At an alumni function over the weekend, Cal Poly Athletic Director Don Oberhelman said that the Mustang team will be the only team to actually compete at the beach. Pismo Beach has existing volleyball nets/courts and there or Avila would seem to make the most sense for Mustang home matches.

The addition of sand volleyball (the NCAA will probably eventually change the name to “Beach Volleyball”) will allow volleyball players to compete during both the fall and spring seasons.

Sand volleyball has some similarities to a few other sports in its structure. Like doubles tennis, there will be five pairs of players from each school who will compete in 3-set matches to 21, 21, and 15 respectively. Players getting to compete in both the fall and spring is similar to the track, indoor track, and cross country seasons, when runners can compete nearly year-round.

Schools in California are definitely the target markets for this new sport. Here’s a Long Beach Gazette YouTube video of highlights from a Long Beach State-USC matchup this past season.

If you want to learn more about the sport and other NCAA programs, collegesand.org seems like a good website.

Long Beach State, a Big West stalwart, seems to also have a good squad.