LEBANON, Ill. (Dec. 9, 2021) – McKendree University Director of Athletics Anthony Francis has formally announced the addition of beach volleyball as an intercollegiate sport beginning in the 2022-23 academic year.
 
With the addition of beach volleyball, McKendree University will now sponsor a total of 25 NCAA athletic programs, including 13 NCAA women's sports and 37 intercollegiate athletic teams overall.
 
"This is an exciting time for McKendree Athletics as the emergence of beach volleyball at the collegiate level continues to grow at a rapid rate and we're excited to be able to add the sport to our intercollegiate athletics program here at McKendree and also to the Metro East area," Francis said. "I'm very confident that our new beach volleyball program will be a fit here at McKendree and will be able to succeed in conjunction with our current women's indoor volleyball program."
 
With the addition to beach volleyball, McKendree will now offer three NCAA volleyball programs as the Bearcats currently have an indoor women's and men's volleyball team. The women's indoor team competes in the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) and the men's indoor team competes in the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA).
 
The beach volleyball program will begin play in the 2023 spring season and a search for the programs first-ever coach is currently underway.
 
Beach volleyball is the fastest-growing NCAA sport as there are currently 113 programs across all NCAA divisions, including a total of 16 NCAA Division II schools.
 
McKendree will become the third NCAA school in the state of Illinois to add beach volleyball as an intercollegiate sport as the Bearcats will join NCAA Division I Eastern Illinois University, who began its beach volleyball team in 2021-22 and NCAA Division III Principia College, who began beach volleyball in 2016, but the sport was suspended prior to the 2020-21 school year due to ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and has yet to return.
 
"This is a great opportunity for our program and university to attract quality student-athletes in the sport of volleyball and I'm excited that we are at the point that we can announce the addition of beach volleyball to our athletics department at McKendree," said McKendree women's and men's head indoor volleyball coach Nickie Sanlin. "With the growth of beach volleyball at both the high school and collegiate level, this should help us recruit and attract well-rounded players that can help us compete both on the court and in the sand. I'm excited to see the benefits of adding beach to our department as it will provide our players a chance to train in the sand during the offseason."
 
ABOUT NCAA BEACH VOLLEYBALL
In 2009, the NCAA placed beach volleyball on its list of emerging sports for women and called it sand volleyball, but the name was later changed to beach volleyball since that is what the sport is known at all other levels of play throughout the world. The inaugural championship (all three levels compete for one championship) for the sport took place in the spring of 2016 and is now the 90th NCAA Championship sport. Southern Cal (USC) won the 2021 Beach Volleyball National Championship as eight teams were selected for the championship that was played in Gulf Shores, Ala., and televised live by the ESPN networks, including ESPN2 broadcasting the championship match. In addition to an NCAA Championship, the American Volleyball Coaches' Association (AVCA) also plays host to a small college championship tournament each spring.
 
BEACH VOLLEYBALL RULES
In NCAA beach volleyball, two schools play five best two-out-of-three set doubles matches against one another, with the winner being the first team to claim at least three of the five doubles matches. The NCAA championship was an eight-team bracket that is played in a double elimination format, but has now been switched to a 16-team bracket that will feature a single elimination first round with eight teams advancing to a double elimination format to determine the national champion.