U of U Beach Volleyball Returns For Second Season

U of U Beach Volleyball Returns For Second Season

SALT LAKE CITY-After debuting in 2017, the University of Utah women’s beach volleyball team returns for its second season Saturday April 7 at the Hawaii Queen’s Cup Tournament at Honolulu.

Women’s beach volleyball is a relative newcomer to NCAA Division I sports, this being only the third season it has been sponsored as an intercollegiate sport.

The season is relatively short, spanning only to May 4-6 for the national championship tournament at Gulf Shores, Ala.

As is the case in all other sports, the Utes compete in the PAC-12 in beach volleyball with 9 overall PAC-12 institutions competing in the sport.

The PAC-12 institutions competing in beach volleyball include Arizona, Arizona State, California, UCLA, Oregon, USC, Stanford and Washington, in addition to Utah.

The first two national championships have been won by USC with legendary coach Anna Collier going 146-18 (.890) at the helm. Collier actually pioneered the program six years ago, leading the Trojans to the pinnacle of the sport.

It remains to be seen if BYU will commit to having an intercollegiate beach volleyball program as the Cougars have dabbled with the idea.

Should they agree to sponsor the sport, they would compete in the West Coast Conference, as they do all sports except football, and compete against Loyola Marymount, Pacific, Pepperdine, Portland, San Francisco, Santa Clara and Saint Mary’s.