Completed Event: Beach Volleyball versus No. 10 Arizona State on April 25, 2025 , Loss , 1, to, 3
Final Score
Beach Volleyball
1
vs No. 10 Arizona State
3
Utes Keep Pushing Forward to Build Beach Program
3/29/2019 12:28 PM | Beach Volleyball
Despite challenges, beach volleyball continues progressing.
The addition of the Utah women's beach volleyball team came in the spring of 2017 when the Utes became the ninth Pac-12 school to sponsor beach volleyball. Beach volleyball is an emerging sport and Utah saw this as an opportunity to add the program, as well as a great opportunity for current and future student-athletes.
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Starting a new program can be difficult and there is a learning curve that all teams are bound to face. Utah's beach program in just its third year is still finding its place and developing more and more every day.Â
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"Beach volleyball is one of the fastest growing NCAA sports right now," said second year head coach Brenda Whicker. "Some of the Pac-12 beach programs are separate from their indoor programs, but ours isn't one of those. My hope is that one day it will be. I believe funding and support staff for a new program are some of the greatest challenges. I love this sport and hope that it's one that will eventually offer more female athletes a place to compete in the sport they love as well."
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With an established indoor program in place, the beach volleyball program knows they are capable of taking the right steps to get to that level. The current beach team's roster is mostly comprised of indoor players that joined four beach-only student-athletes which makes training difficult because they are not getting a significant amount of practice time together.
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"I train the four beach players throughout the year, but the indoor players just join us for tournaments and a few practices before the tournaments," explained Whicker. "It's very challenging to get everyone on the same page, but the indoor players are great athletes and pick up the game quickly. It definitely takes a lot of communication with coaches and each pair to help get them working well together in a short amount of time. Fortunately, all the indoor players know each other well and two of our beach players have been involved with the indoor team in the past."
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Despite little time together, the Utes have been able to build team chemistry quickly. Just after one weekend of play this season, Utah had mixed an indoor player and beach-only player to make up most of the pairs competing. All of the pairs that competed had never seen action as a pair together before. The Utes went 2-2 in the opening weekend of the 2019 season, picking up wins over San Francisco (3-2) and Feather River (5-0).
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Utah beach volleyball will be taking another step in the building of the program when the Utes host their first ever home tournament on Saturday, April 13, on their home courts next to the Lassonde Studios on the University of Utah campus. This gives the chance for the student-athletes to display to their home fans how hard they have been working and how fun the game is to watch. The Utes will welcome Boise State and Colorado Mesa for the big day in the program.
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"We are really excited to host our first home matches this year in hopes that we can gain more support for this sport," said Whicker. "I do believe there is a lot of interest for beach volleyball in the state of Utah. So, I hope everyone will come out and make it a fun weekend. Our players are really excited to have some home crowd support for a change."
Â
With so much support from the very beginning of the process, Utah beach volleyball has so much to look forward to and is just beginning to get to where they know they will be. In the third season of the program, the Utes have been on an ascending track and are looking to continue that this season.
Â
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Starting a new program can be difficult and there is a learning curve that all teams are bound to face. Utah's beach program in just its third year is still finding its place and developing more and more every day.Â
Â
"Beach volleyball is one of the fastest growing NCAA sports right now," said second year head coach Brenda Whicker. "Some of the Pac-12 beach programs are separate from their indoor programs, but ours isn't one of those. My hope is that one day it will be. I believe funding and support staff for a new program are some of the greatest challenges. I love this sport and hope that it's one that will eventually offer more female athletes a place to compete in the sport they love as well."
Â
With an established indoor program in place, the beach volleyball program knows they are capable of taking the right steps to get to that level. The current beach team's roster is mostly comprised of indoor players that joined four beach-only student-athletes which makes training difficult because they are not getting a significant amount of practice time together.
Â
"I train the four beach players throughout the year, but the indoor players just join us for tournaments and a few practices before the tournaments," explained Whicker. "It's very challenging to get everyone on the same page, but the indoor players are great athletes and pick up the game quickly. It definitely takes a lot of communication with coaches and each pair to help get them working well together in a short amount of time. Fortunately, all the indoor players know each other well and two of our beach players have been involved with the indoor team in the past."
Â
Despite little time together, the Utes have been able to build team chemistry quickly. Just after one weekend of play this season, Utah had mixed an indoor player and beach-only player to make up most of the pairs competing. All of the pairs that competed had never seen action as a pair together before. The Utes went 2-2 in the opening weekend of the 2019 season, picking up wins over San Francisco (3-2) and Feather River (5-0).
Â
Utah beach volleyball will be taking another step in the building of the program when the Utes host their first ever home tournament on Saturday, April 13, on their home courts next to the Lassonde Studios on the University of Utah campus. This gives the chance for the student-athletes to display to their home fans how hard they have been working and how fun the game is to watch. The Utes will welcome Boise State and Colorado Mesa for the big day in the program.
Â
"We are really excited to host our first home matches this year in hopes that we can gain more support for this sport," said Whicker. "I do believe there is a lot of interest for beach volleyball in the state of Utah. So, I hope everyone will come out and make it a fun weekend. Our players are really excited to have some home crowd support for a change."
Â
With so much support from the very beginning of the process, Utah beach volleyball has so much to look forward to and is just beginning to get to where they know they will be. In the third season of the program, the Utes have been on an ascending track and are looking to continue that this season.
Â
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