CORVALLIS, Ore. – Beach Volleyball has picked up a lot of momentum recently and is starting to heat up even more, especially in the Pacific Northwest, and was named an emerging sport by the NAIA in 2019. This past Spring, the NAIA held its first-ever Women’s Beach Volleyball Invitational with a familiar name grabbing a piece of history.
Corban University etched itself in the history books as the first-ever NAIA Women’s Beach Volleyball Invitational Champion after defeating Vanguard University in the championship finale.
“It’s kind of surreal,” said Corban Head Beach Volleyball Coach Diana Villalpando on winning the inaugural championship. “It was a surreal moment of how incredibly blessed and grateful we were to be in the first-ever national championship.”
When Villalpando first started at Corban, she joined as an assistant coach to the Warriors’ indoor volleyball team.
“When I took the assistant indoor job at Corban, I saw land was available and said, ‘We should do a beach team!’” said Villalpando. “They kind of looked at me like, ‘Beach volleyball in the Pacific Northwest?!’ But I promised to get 14 athletes on my roster my first year and I got 16. I had the mentality that if you build it, they will come.”
Villalpando hopes to continue to see the sport grow and shares her resources and knowledge with schools who are interested in adding the sport.
“It has to make sense for a university to add the program,” said Villalpando. “It’s a fantastic way to boost university numbers in a relatively low-cost sport to add.”
Right now, Corban, along with the other three Cascade Collegiate Conference programs compete as independents and join the California Pacific Conference (CalPac) in a postseason tournament that provides a route to the NAIA National Invitational, but Villalpando would love to see the CCC sponsor the sport and get its own bid to nationals.
“It has been great to see the rather quick growth of the sport in the league,” stated CCC commissioner Robert Cashell. “If we can reach six universities sponsoring, we can consider adding beach as a conference offering since that is the number needed to attain an automatic bid to nationals."
“I know that several schools, in addition to the four we have, are deep in the evaluation process,” added Cashell. “I am hopeful we will be at a point of adding it as our 16
th championship soon.”
Part of the reason Villalpando believes the sport has been growing so much is because of an influx of younger volleyball players.
“Indoor volleyball is one of the top sports for female athletes to play,” said Villalpando. “There’s been a big influx in indoor volleyball athletes in the past six years but there weren’t universities adding indoor. Athletes started making the transition to beach since the opportunities were there.”
Making the transition from the hardwood to the sand isn’t as easy, however. Besides the obvious playing floor differences, indoor volleyball plays with six athletes on the court and beach volleyball plays with two, which makes for a completely different dynamic.
“One of the biggest differences between indoor and beach volleyball is that indoor is positionally specific whereas beach you have to be good at everything,” said Villalpando. “It’s also two-versus-two, so it’s just you and one other person out there. Indoor tends to be more of a speed and power game, where beach is more skills and strategy, but that’s starting to change more.”
Villalpando also believes some athletes transition to beach because it is so different from indoor and they like the challenge it brings.
“A lot of girls like the two-versus-two over a bigger team in match,” said Villalpando. “There are less people you have to worry about, you can really dial in and make close connections. You also get to do more, you get to pass, set and hit. You have to get good at every skill. It’s a new challenge, especially if you’ve been doing the same position for so long at indoor.”
Beach volleyball can also prepare athletes for life outside of sports. While there are loads of lessons to be learned at every sport, Villalpando sees that expedited when athletes transition from indoor to beach.
“You have to do all the skills so there’s a learning curve with that transition and there can be frustrations with that process,” said Villalpando. “Sometimes in life you go through similar learning curves, and you know you’ve gone through the process before. You know you can do hard things.”
In fact, that’s one of Villalpando’s favorite parts of her job. Seeing that lightbulb go off in her athletes when they go through the learning curve and come out on the other side.
“It’s so fun to see athletes realize they can do something new and it’s something they can take with them for the rest of their lives. The world can throw anything at them and they know they can get through it.”
Corban went into the inaugural season with goals of finishing in the top-three of the CalPac Tournament. Villalpando thought if the Warriors could compete well against the local NCAA Division I teams, they might have a chance to accomplish that goal and get some national recognition.
The Warriors did just that. Corban took second at the conference tournament but wasn’t satisfied with its performance. The Warriors earned an at-large qualifier to the NAIA Invitational and were determined to do better.
“The girls are smart,” said Villalpando. “They learn from their mistakes and make good adjustments.
That came in handy when the Warriors got to the championship round. Corban had lost to Vanguard University in pool play, but one of the Warrior seniors gave an epic pep talk and told her team to go out and play without fear.
The championship came down to the last court, which happened to be right next to the pier so there were a lot of eyes on the match.
“It was such a cool experience,” said Villalpando. “It came down to the last point and a freshman served an ace to win it. It was so cool to see the girls celebrating one another. All that hard work had paid off.”