SIESTA KEY, Fla. – Fiesta on Siesta Key, a beach volleyball competition that is being billed as one of the argest collegiate volleyball events in the country, will take place April 18, 2009 in Siesta Key, Fla.

The event will be showcased by the second-annual Southeastern Conference Coaches Beach Volleyball Championships and also will feature the Collegiate Beach Volleyball Challenge. David Carstenson and Tom Collett are co-directors for the tournament.

“The Fiesta is actually a number of beach/sand volleyball tournaments in one,” Carstenson said. “The event is comprised of the SEC Coaches Beach Volleyball Championships and the Collegiate Beach Volleyball Challenge.”

“We are thrilled that the coaches of the Southeastern Conference have decided to contest their event at the Fiesta” said Collett. Each of the 11 SEC schools (Vanderbilt does not sponsor volleyball) will participate in the 2nd Annual SEC Coaches Beach Volleyball Championships. Almost twenty schools from the Atlantic Coast, Big East, Atlantic Sun and other conferences have already committed to compete in the Collegiate Beach Volleyball Challenge. “The Collegiate Beach Volleyball Challenge will be set-up to consist of several tournaments. Schools from like conferences will compete against each other. But, if we don’t meet the required level of participation from a particular conference, we will mix and match schools in round robin style play” explained Carstenson.

 

Beach volleyball was introduced to the collegiate scene by CBS College Sports Network with the Collegiate Nationals, an original event founded by the Network in the spring of 2006. That event is now in ts fourth season. The coaches of the Southeastern and the Sunshine State Conferences followed with their beach tournaments in the spring of 2008. The popularity of those events along with others that sprang up spontaneously around the country helped lead to the NCAA’s Committee on Women’s Athletics to recommend in the summer of 2008 that Sand Volleyball be added to the emerging sports list for women. Representatives from NCAA Division I and II will vote on that proposal this month.

“We are grateful to our partners at CBS College Sports Network and the AVP for bringing collegiate beach volleyball to the national consciousness,” said AVCA Executive Director, Kathy DeBoer, “The Fiesta on Siesta Key is clear evidence of the growth and popularity of the sport and will provide good competitive opportunities for student-athletes in another part of the country. If the NCAA adopts Sand Volleyball as an emerging sport, the number of participants in sand volleyball will explode.”

“The Fiesta on Siesta Key will be a celebration of collegiate beach volleyball with several conferences contesting their (unofficial) beach championships here. Due to NCAA rules on spring play, the entire event will take place on one day, and what a day it will be!” concluded Carstenson.