ETBU Adds Beach Volleyball

ETBU becomes the second ASC member school to add women’s beach volleyball and will begin play in 2023. They join Mary Hardin-Baylor in the ASC and will become the eight nationally to adopt the sport. I’ve written here and here about the benefits of adding the sport.

Allison Kuster has been named the Head Coach as she has just moved over from LeTourneau (there’s a lot of that going on over there right now) to be the assistant indoor volleyball coach, as well.

I’m really excited to see beach volleyball get going at the DIII level and I believe it’s only a matter of time before a number of other schools in Texas join the party in the sand. Why the SCIAC (Southern California) hasn’t taken the lead on this is still shocking to me. In Texas, there are a number of schools that play the sport outside of DIII and I assume there will be some opportunities to play these teams. With that said, I would imagine that most of the schedule will be filled with other DIII schools playing the sport to the east (LaGrange, Hendrix, Bob Jones, Huntingdon and Berry).

No word on how the interaction between indoor and beach will work at ETBU. As I’ve written before, the administrations like for the teams to be separate to promote the academic life of the student-athlete but also to promote enrollment. With that said, players that want the DIII opportunity to play beach and maybe indoor, too, can only find it at two locations in Texas right now. Seems like an advantage other DIII programs can’t ignore too much longer.