Ariana Garner has accepted a scholarship to play Sand Volleyball for Long Beach State. The sophomore from Carmichael, Calif., was a setter on the 2012-13 SBCC indoor women’s volleyball teams, earning first-team All-WSC honors in 2012.
Long Beach State won the 2013 AVCA Sand Volleyball national championship and finished second to USC in this year’s championship at Gulf Shores, Ala. Sand Volleyball is one of the fastest growing NCAA sports with 50 schools sponsoring it as of January 2015. The NCAA will hold its first sand volleyball championships in 2016.
SBCC has had a Sand Volleyball club team for the last three years under the direction of coaches Ed Gover and Lisa Gera.
“Ari was one of our most talented players and took on a leadership role this year,” said Gera. “It was fun to watch her and Madelon (Leiphardt) and they had great chemistry. I’m really proud of Ari’s hard work and dedication to our sand program.
“She is pioneering the sport and I couldn’t be happier that she’s moving on to Long Beach State, the national runner-up.”
Garner played Sand Volleyball this year with Leiphardt, her former SBCC indoor teammate who was the WSC North MVP in 2014. Leiphardt will play Indoor and Sand Volleyball for Cal State Northridge.
“Ari is a smaller right-side player who used her vertical jump and quickness to become very successful on the beach. She has a great cut shot and can still hit with pace at 5-foot-5.”
The Vaqueros went 7-3 in their third season on the sand.
“The growth we have seen in Sand Volleyball over the past few years is really quite incredible,” stated SBCC athletic director Ryan Byrne. “It’s already an NCAA Division I sport, a CCCAA sanctioned sport and next year it will be NCAA Division II and III. It is the second-fastest growing sport next to Lacrosse, so it’s really exploded recently, which has resulted in more opportunities for student-athletes.”
The sand season runs from January to May with 12 to 18 players on a team. There are just two players on a team versus the normal six on the indoor squad. The beach courts are significantly smaller and it takes fewer points — 21 compared to 25 — to win a best-of-three match.
Five two-woman teams square off in each match and the first team to three points is the winner.
There are 16 schools that play Sand Volleyball in the California Community College Athletic Association and 11 are in Southern California. Irvine Valley won the first CCCAA Sand Volleyball Championship on May 1-2, going 3-0 in round-robin play at the four-team finals.
