The first-ever AVCA Fall Collegiate Beach Championships event is set for this weekend as the University of Tennessee at Martin's Brooke Kuball and Olivia O'Keefe will compete for a women's pairs national title.
The event starts tomorrow and runs through Sunday, Nov. 6 at John Hunt Park in Huntsville, Ala., home to a multimillion state-of-the-art beach volleyball complex with 15 lighted courts. The women's competition will showcase top players from NCAA Division I and Division II schools across the United States, including pairs from each of the 16 teams that made the 2022 NCAA Tournament.
In total, 44 college beach volleyball programs will compete in a traditional pool play format on Friday, followed by bracket play on Saturday and Sunday. All pairs will play each of the three days thanks to legislation passed this May by the NCAA, which allows multiple-day events for college women's beach volleyball players during the fall season.
The Skyhawk duo of Kuball and O'Keefe are matched up alongside Malia Gementera/Taylor Hagenah from Long Beach State (11 a.m.), Ella Connor/Jayelin Lombard from Cal Poly (2 p.m.) and Bailey Showalter/Ashlyn Rasnick-Pope from defending national champion and UT Martin's 2022 first-round NCAA Tournament opponent USC (5 p.m.) tomorrow.
Kuball enjoyed a successful first season as a Skyhawk last spring after transferring from MiraCosta College. The 5-6 junior out of Prather, Calif. went 14-7 overall with a 4-1 record against Ohio Valley Conference rivals. She played out of the No. 5 position in the lineup all season long, helping UT Martin become the first team in OVC history to sweep both the regular season and tournament championships. The titles were the first for the Skyhawk program, who earned the distinction of being the first OVC team to appear in the NCAA Tournament.
A 5-10 junior, O'Keefe is making her UT Martin debut after transferring in from Tusculum University. Last season, she Scottsdale, Ariz. native helped her squad to their best season in school history, going 22-11 with a bronze finish at the AVCA Small College Beach Championship event. Over two seasons, she set the school record for career wins at the No. 1 position (22 – five more than second place) and also ranked sixth all-time with 26 overall victories and a .542 winning percentage.
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