2019 NCAA Beach Volleyball

These are the top 5 teams to start the 2019 NCAA beach volleyball season

Dear Readers~


In less than a week after this blog is released, it will be time for the 2019 NCAA beach volleyball season. because of this, I wanted to give a little NCAA beach volleyball introduction, since it's different than the AVP. Unlike how indoor volleyball is played by women in the fall and men in the spring, the NCAA only has beach volleyball for women and because of this, it happens in the spring since a few athletes play beach in the spring after they do indoor in the fall. An example is Mac May, a sophomore from Iowa that plays for UCLA.

With Beach volleyball becoming more and more popular, more colleges are getting beach volleyball, and not just schools in California, Florida, or Texas. My home state of Tennessee has many schools with beach volleyball. The top ones are UT Martin, in western Tennessee, and Austin Peay State University, northwest of Nashville.

The top 5 teams at the start of the season are from 5 to 1: Hawaii, Pepperdine, Florida State, USC, and UCLA. UCLA won the 2018 national finals in Gulf Shores, Alabama last season and before that the 2017 winners were UCLA's cross town rivals, USC. The 2018 finals were UCLA taking on Florida State (Game linked here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27Pzn-S2qnE) The 2017 finals were USC taking on Pepperdine (Summary of the game linked here: https://www.ncaa.com/video/beach-volleyball/2017-05-07/nc-beach-volleyball-championship-2017)

Believe it or not, lots of AVP females have played beach volleyball in the NCAA for the top 5 ranked 2019 teams. Katie Spieler played for Hawaii, Corrine Quiggle played for Pepperdine, Kelly Claes played for USC, Sarah Sponcil currently plays for UCLA, and Florida State is the only team in the top 5 that has no alumni or current players that compete on the AVP  as of the posting of this blog.

Katie Spieler's profile when she was at UH

Corinne Quiggle's profile when she was at Pepperdine

 

Kelly Claes' profile when she was at USC

 

 

Sarah Sponcil's profile at UCLA

Hawaii's first game is Saturday, February 23, 2019 at 10:30 am Hawaii Time against Saint Mary's on Queen Beach there in Manoa, Hawaii. Pepperdine's first game is Saturday, February 23, 2019 at 2 pm Pacific Time  against Stanford. USC's first game is Wednesday, February 27, 2019 at 1 pm Pacific Time against LMU at Merle Norman's Stadium there in Los Angeles. UCLA's first game is Thursday, February 21, 2019 at 8 am Pacific Time against Cal Poly at the Sunset Canyon Recreation area there in Los Angeles. Florida State's first game is Saturday, February 23, 2019 at 5 pm Eastern Time against LSU there in Tallahassee, Florida.

That was just a summary of where some of the beach volleyball teams stand as the season starts in the next week. Don't forget to follow your favorite team as they begin their journey for the 2019 NCAA national championships in Gulf Shores, Alabama from May 3-5, 2019. There is even a giveaway for a person to win a free trip to the national finals there in Gulf Shores. Use the link below for more: https://woobox.com/qdwo6o?source=ETW_NCAAVB_FACEBOOK&fbclid=IwAR39Cshz29eccV_kaoE-6XgFV-G_PlqzbCsJXQ_sexShmrvGZWgR1BjfNjM

That concludes my introduction of the 2019 NCAA top beach volleyball teams as they begin their season in the next week. Make sure to watch them during the season. If you'd like your favorite team, game, or sport covered, let me know in the comments below. Until next time, Miller out


~J. Miller