The College of Charleston sand volleyball team will be competing as one of four schools in the inaugural AVCA National Championship this weekend in Gulf Shores, Alabama. Watch a video of the team in action.
College of Charleston was selected for the national championships along with Pepperdine, Florida State and Long Beach State. On their first season of sand volleyball, the Cougars went 4-3 in dual meets with wins over Mercer, UNF, FAU and Tulane.
Along with the four-squad team championship, the three-day event will also feature an individual tournament of 16 pairings. All four championship teams automatically have their top two pairs entered into the bracket, while the other 11 teams vied for the final eight spots.
College of Charleston’s Elyse Chubb and Lizzie Theesfeld were entered into pool three alongside a pairing from Long Beach State, Pepperdine and Stetson. Emily Shelton and Kelly Kolich were selected for pool one along with squads from Florida State, Hawaii and Long Beach State.
“We’ve had a great two weeks of practice and we are ready for the national championships,” head coach Jason Kepner said. “When we added sand volleyball as a sport, being selected for the final four was obviously a team goal, and I’m so proud of our team for accomplishing that and learning this sport so quickly. We look forward to representing the College of Charleston on the national stage this weekend.”
CBS Sports Network will televise portions of the competition in two hour-long specials, airing on Wednesday, June 6 at 9 p.m. ET and Wednesday, June 13 at 9 p.m. ET.
The Team Championship will be held on Saturday, April 28. Each of the four schools will field five doubles teams ranked in order. Play will start at 11 a.m. CT on five championship courts that have been constructed specifically for this event. Teams will battle in a double elimination format with duals scheduled on the hour, and the final matchup scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. CT.
The Pairs Championship will consist of sixteen doubles teams engaged in pool play on Friday, April 27 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. CT. The results of that play will determine the seeding of the 16 pairs into a single elimination tournament on Sunday, April 29. First round matches will start at 8 a.m., with quarter finals scheduled for 9 a.m. Both semi-finals and the championship match will be held on center court, beginning at 11 a.m., and will be covered in depth by CBS Sports Network.
Fans can follow all of the action live through the CofC Volleyball twitter account at @cofcvolleyball.