VolleyballMag photographers Mark Rigney, Stephen Burns and Will Chu shot thousands of photos last week at the NCAA’s National Collegiate Beach Volleyball Championships in Gulf Shores, Alabama. This gallery includes their favorites. Click on any image to view full size. Athletes, friends and families, if you use these shots for social media, please credit our guys, on Instagram @markrigney, @pnvolleyphotos, @willchuphotography The post NCAA beach volleyball: Best photos from Mark Rigney, Stephen Burns, Will Chu appeared first on ..read more

League One Volleyball (LOVB), which begins its inaugural pro season in 2025, announced Thursday  that it has entered into an agreement with ESPN to present some of its pro matches across its linear networks and digital platforms. According to LOVB, ESPN platforms will show 10 LOVB matches across its linear networks when the season begins in January 2025. Eighteen of LOVB’s matches will also stream on ESPN+. LOVB did not say on which outlets other matches will be shown. “LOVB has set out on an ambitious path to develop volleyball into the next major American sports league, and we could not ..read more

The USA and Japan women gathered for a photo after scrimmaging Monday ANAHEIM, California — The respective USA Olympic volleyball coaches, Karch Kiraly and John Speraw, will both end up in Paris the third week of July, but their teams are taking different paths to get to the Olympics. Kiraly and his USA women start Volleyball Nations League play next Wednesday against Thailand in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The USA women’s 12-person, one-alternate Olympics roster is far from decided. Speraw’s men’s team begins VNL play against Poland May 22 in Antalya, Türkiye, and though not announced, the roster ..read more

HERMOSA BEACH, California — It wasn’t hard to guess the subject of this month’s SANDCAST mailbag: After withdrawing from the Xiamen Challenge and Brasilia Elite16, Have Tri Bourne and Chaim Schalk dropped out of the race to the Paris Olympic Games? No less than a dozen individuals asked various versions of that question, one I’ll allow Bourne to answer himself: “We are pulling out of the Olympic race. We basically got far enough back in it, and it was a grind, I don’t know what it looked like from the outside but it’s been an uphill battle the whole time. The stress of it, that’s all part of ..read more

The San Diego Mojo celebrate after beating Columbus/Lee Feinswog photo SAN DIEGO — On February 19, the San Diego Mojo got swept for the third time to start the inaugural Pro Volleyball Federation. “We just wanted to win a set at that point,” veteran Ali Bastianelli admitted. They broke through with a four-set home victory over the Grand Rapids, but still lost three of their next four matches, were 2-6 and looking a lot like a team that was going to finish in last place in the new seven-team league. But after the Mojo defeated the visiting Columbus Fury on Tuesday, they not only evened their re ..read more

Zoe Verge-Depre, right, and Esmee Bobner in Brasilia/Volleyball World photo The race for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games officially began in February 2023 in Doha, Qatar, with the Volleyball World Elite16. The 2024 season began the first week of March back in Doha, and the final event of the Olympic qualification cycle will be the Ostrava Elite16, which ends on June 9. We’ll be providing these updates for the Beach Volleyball Olympic rankings after international points-earning tournaments: With three events remaining in the Olympic qualification period — an Elite16 in Espinho, Portugal, a Challen ..read more

Front row, from left: Nancy Owen-Fortner, Alice Sanchez, Miki McFadden, DaeLea Aldrich, Doug Perry (for Mary Perry), Rosie Wegrich. Second row, from left: Rick Olmstead, Matt Fuerbringer, Kristin Klein Keefe. Third row from left: Walt Ker, Charlie Jackson, Dr. Bill Stetson, Erik Sullivan, Albert Gasparian, Don Shaw. Back row, from left: Svend Anderson (for Ninja Jorgensen), Michael Boehle, David Lee/Jim Wolf photo ANAHEIM, California — The Southern California Indoor Volleyball Hall of Fame honored its sixth, seventh and eighth induction classes Sunday before a sell-out audience at Anaheim’s Hw ..read more

San Diego’s Willow Johnson attacks against the Grand Rapids block of Ericka Pritchard, left, and Marin Grote/Nicolas Carrillo photo Three playoff spots are clinched and one remains with just seven matches left in the Pro Volleyball Federation inaugural season. The Atlanta Vibe (19-5) were the first to clinch and have maintained their hold on first place as the top seed in the four-team playoffs.  The second team in was Omaha and Supernovas (14-7) have a lock on the second seed. The Grand Rapids Rise (11-2) clinched one of the final two spots on Sunday with sweep of San Diego (10-11), whic ..read more

On the surface, it was easy to wonder (and many did): What was going on with Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth? The No. 2 team in the world had supposedly gone through whatever a sophomore slump might look like for them, and theirs resembled nothing of the sort. A brilliant rookie season paved the way for a second year on the Beach Pro Tour in which they won seven medals, the most in a single season since April Ross and Kerri Walsh Jennings. They took bronze at the World Championships, gold at the Beach Pro Tour Finals. They clinched a spot in the Paris Olympic Games. They were nominated for Team o ..read more

USC dogpiles/Mark Rigney photo Story by USC sports information The top-seeded and No. 1-ranked USC beach volleyball team (37-5) defeated second-seeded No. 2 UCLA (35-7) by a 3-0 count to win the 2024 NCAA championship at Gulf Beach Place on Sunday. USC charges to the Gulf/Will Chu Photography The championship is an unprecedented fourth-straight for a USC women’s team and marks the first time a Trojan team of either gender has won four consecutive national titles since the men’s water polo team won six consecutive titles from 2008-13. USC brings home the 38th national championship won by a wome ..read more