Tracking Glory with Hal Martin
May 21, 2013
Rival games headline 2013 prep schedules
May 21, 2013
For more than 100 years, mighty purple-and gold-clad Tigers have roamed the football gridiron, basketball hardwood and baseball diamond, among other athletic venues.
In 2014, LSU athletics will add a new program to its repertoire – women’s sand volleyball.
Tigers’ Athletics Director and Vice Chancellor Joe Alleva announced last Wednesday that the school will adopt the sport during next year’s sporting year.
Sand volleyball will be LSU’s 21st official varsity sport. The university will now have 12 women’s sports and nine men’s sports.
It is the first addition to LSU’s athletic slate since 1996-97, when the Tigers added women’s soccer and softball.
“Sand volleyball is an emerging and exciting sport that will complement our existing indoor volleyball program, and will bolster our women’s athletics program,” Alleva said. “The addition of sand volleyball will provide more opportunities for female athletes to be a part of LSU athletics.”
The LSU sand volleyball program appears as though it will be a complement to the school’s already-successful indoor volleyball team.
Tigers’ indoor volleyball coach Fran Flory will also be the coach of the school’s sand volleyball program – at least in its infancy.
Flory has been LSU’s volleyball coach since 1998. During her 15-year tenure, she has coached the Tigers to 279 wins – including six-straight NCAA Tournament seasons.
Flory said she is excited to have a new sport to oversee.
“Adding sand volleyball to our department is a great chance for LSU to be a leader in new opportunities for female student-athletes,” Flory said. “With our location, climate and local interest in the sport, sand volleyball is an ideal fit for LSU.”
She added that the indoor program would benefit, because players will be able to crossover and play both sports.
“There will be additional opportunities for our current players,” she said. “We are very excited to get started building a championship tradition on the sand.”
Initially, the Tigers won’t face many challengers in their quest to win a championship in sand volleyball.
In 2012, only 15 NCAA Division I programs had the sport as a part of its varsity athletics.
But the sport has shown measured growth, and the number of programs doubled in 2013 and has continued to grow into 2014.
Arizona and South Carolina are other schools who have announced that they will add the sport next season.
Sand volleyball is currently listed by the NCAA as an “emerging sport.” But it likely will not be one for long. Once 40 universities adopt it as a varsity sport, it will be listed as a championship sport. That distinction means that the NCAA would regulate postseason play and crown an official national champion.
In a news release, Alleva said that while LSU plans to have volleyball players who play on both the indoor and outdoor teams, the school will also have athletes who play on just one of the teams.
Officials said that LSU student-athletes with a scholarship for indoor volleyball will be able to play sand volleyball, but women with sand volleyball scholarships will not be able to crossover and play on the indoor team.
The format and pace of play in college sand volleyball mimics the game that we see in Olympic competition.
Two players will share a side of the floor with no substitutions. Sets will be played in a rally-point scoring system up to 21 points.
The first team to win two sets takes the match.
The U.S. Olympic Beach Volleyball team reacts after winning a match in the 2012 Summer Olympics. LSU will take part in the growing sport in 2014, adding sand volleyball to its program.
