The Georgia State Panthers women's beach volleyball team represents
Georgia State University
Georgia State University (Georgia State, State, or GSU) is a Public university, public research university in Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1913, it is one of the University System of Georgia's four research universities. It is also the ...
in the sport of
beach volleyball
Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two or more players on a sand court divided by a net. Similar to indoor volleyball, the objective of the game is to send the ball over the net and to ground it on the opponent's side of the ...
.
The Panthers compete in
NCAA Division I
NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of College athletics, intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major ...
as a member of
Conference USA
Conference USA (C-USA or CUSA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose current member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. C-USA's offices are l ...
(C-USA). The Panthers play their home matches at the GSU Sand Volleyball Complex on the university's
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
campus, and are currently led by head coach
Beth Van Fleet.
History
With the emergence of
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
at Georgia State University, due to
Title IX
Title IX is the most commonly used name for the federal civil rights law in the United States that was enacted as part (Title IX) of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other educat ...
scholarship restrictions, it was necessary for GSU to increase the number of women's scholarships available in their athletic program
The creation of beach volleyball at Georgia State was announced on September 27, 2011, by Georgia State Athletic Director Cheryl Levick.
Construction of the GSU Sand Volleyball Complex, a 340-seat, 3 tiered court set, began in April 2012, and was completed by September 2012. The site has unofficially been nicknamed "The Beach."
Originally named as head coach of beach volleyball, head coach Tami Audia was elevated to Director of Volleyball, being replaced by assistant coach Beth Van Fleet in July 2013.
On October 20, 2015, Georgia State joined the
Coastal Collegiate Sports Association
The Coastal Collegiate Sports Association is an NCAA Division I college athletic conference.
Established in 2008, the Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association (CCSA) was originally developed by four regional Division I conferences — the A ...
(CCSA) as a beach volleyball member, coinciding with the NCAA's decision to sponsor it and provide a championship, as well as the addition of beach volleyball as an official CCSA sport (which led to that conference changing its name from the original Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association). This also coincided with the NCAA changing the name of the sport from "sand" to "beach" volleyball.
During the 2020–21 school year, the CCSA entered into a formal beach volleyball partnership with
Conference USA
Conference USA (C-USA or CUSA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose current member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. C-USA's offices are l ...
(C-USA) that saw the 2021 CCSA tournament split into two divisions, with GSU joining fellow Sun Belt member
Louisiana–Monroe and full C-USA members
Florida Atlantic,
FIU,
Southern Miss
The University of Southern Mississippi (Southern Miss or USM) is a public research university with its main campus located in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award bachelor's, ma ...
, and
UAB in one of the divisions. After that season, the CCSA and C-USA agreed to split their beach volleyball membership, with the six aforementioned schools and another full Sun Belt member,
Coastal Carolina
Coastal Carolina University (CCU or Coastal) is a public university in Conway, South Carolina. Founded in 1954 as Coastal Carolina Junior College, and later joining the University of South Carolina System as USC Coastal Carolina, it became an in ...
, forming the new C-USA beach volleyball league.
Year-by-year results
Home Court/Practice and Training facilities
The
GSU Beach Volleyball Complex GSU may refer to:
Universities
* Galatasaray University, in Istanbul, Turkey
* Gavar State University, in Armenia
* Georgia Southern University, in Statesboro, Georgia, United States
* Georgia State University, in Atlanta, Georgia, United States ...
is the home court and practice facility for the women's beach volleyball team.
See also
*
Georgia State Panthers
The Georgia State Panthers are the intercollegiate athletics teams that represent Georgia State University, located in Atlanta, Georgia. Almost all GSU teams compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as me ...
*
List of NCAA women's beach volleyball programs These collegiate women's beach volleyball teams compete as members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Currently, 93 college athletic programs sponsor the sport, with one more to do so in a future season. The majority of the pa ...
References
External links
*
{{Conference USA navbox
Beach volleyball clubs established in 2012
2012 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)