BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) — The Summit boys volleyball team continues to build momentum, both on the court and in the state rankings. Now 8-1 on the season after beating Crook County in three sets and sitting as the No. 2 ranked team in Oregon, the Storm are proving once again why they’re a team to beat.

“I’m pretty happy with the win,” said junior Gavin White. “I think we struggled a little bit in the third set, but we were able to bring it back, which is huge. We’ve had a pretty solid season, just one loss outside of league. Other than that, we’ve come together really well as a team and been able to finish off all the games.”

Summit’s dominance is especially impressive considering how young the squad is. The defending state champs feature three juniors and seven sophomores, including standout sophomore Aiden Woods.

“We love it,” said Woods. “We love against Crook County every year. It’s fun to be out here with the same guys I’ve spent the whole year with. It feels like a whole new energy, and we just get to go for it and have a lot of fun.”

Boys volleyball is still considered an emerging sport by the OSAA (Oregon School Activities Association), but its growth has been explosive. When OSAA launched the sport in 2022, only five teams were involved. Now, just three years later, there are 68 teams and nearly 1,000 players competing across the state.

“It’s not something you see a lot, boys playing volleyball,” Woods said. “I like it when we get younger kids are coming in and they watch our games and they’ll come up saying, ‘That was so cool, I want to play volleyball!’ I think that’s awesome! It’s amazing to see.”

Crook County senior Evan Wood says the Cowboys are just as passionate. “When we play with good sportsmanship and pride, it makes it easier for others to jump on board and push for full sanctioning.”

Locally, both Summit and Crook County have built their programs from scratch, with many players having little to no prior experience. Yet the progress has been swift and the ceiling keeps rising.

“This team is so tight off the court, and I think that really translates when we play,” Wood added. “Our coach tells us every day, ‘When you guys are happy, you’re playing well.’ So it’s important for us to be loud and proud out there.”

This year, 4A schools will get their own postseason tournament, and Crook County is hungry for its first title. But for the Storm, the goal remains crystal clear: repeat as champions.

“I think we have the skills,” said White. “I think it’s just all about that teamwork, keeping morale high and just gaining momentum out throughout the tournament. “

“We want to keep improving and win as many times as we can before we graduate,” said Woods.

SALT LAKE CITY — After nine seasons as part of University of Utah athletics, the school’s beach volleyball program is being eliminated.

Tuesday’s announcement comes days after the team fell in the semifinals of the Big 12 Tournament in a 3-1 loss to Arizona State. The Utes ended the season with 21 wins, making it the winningest season in Utah beach volleyball history.

Head coach Brenda Whicker, a member of the Utah Athletics Hall of Fame, announced her retirement immediately following the conference tournament loss.

Beach volleyball became part of the Utes athletics program as a varsity sport in 2017 when the school was still a member of the Pac-12 Conference. Utah currently competes in the Big 12, where only three other schools participate in the sport.

“This was an extremely difficult decision, and we did not arrive at this conclusion without a significant and appropriate amount of thought, consideration and consultation,” said Utah Athletics Director Mark Harlan.

Harlan added that with only 12 beach volleyball programs among the four power conferences, it does not appear that the sport is expanding, and that the school is “not providing the world-class experience that we seek to provide to our student-athletes.”

Utah said it will work to support its current beach volleyball student-athletes, and if they choose to remain at the school, their scholarships will be honored. Scholarships provided to incoming student-athletes will also be honored.

Following the elimination of beach volleyball, the Utah athletics program will be comprised of 19 sports.

Indianapolis, IN – The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) announced the bracket and matchups for the 2025 National Collegiate Women’s Water Polo Championship on Monday, April 28. Wagner will face McKendree University in the opening round on Wednesday, May 7, at 6:00 p.m. ET. The winner will advance to meet No. 1 Stanford (22-1) in the first round on Friday, May 9, at 9:00 a.m. PT. All rounds of the championship will be held at the IU Natatorium in Indianapolis, Indiana, hosted by Indiana University and Indy Sports Corp. The 2025 championship will feature an eight-team, single-elimination format. The remainder…

SALT LAKE CITY – University of Utah athletics director Mark Harlan announced today that the Utes’ beach volleyball program will be discontinued at the conclusion of the academic year, after nine seasons of competitive play. Utah first introduced beach volleyball as an intercollegiate varsity sport in 2017, when Utah was a member of the Pac-12 Conference.
 
For the 2025 season that concluded last Friday in the semifinals of the Big 12 Tournament, Utah competed as a member of the Big 12 Conference. Currently, there are only three other Big 12 institutions that sponsor beach volleyball. With only four sponsored programs in the conference, there is no automatic qualifier to the NCAA tournament for the Big 12 champion. 
 
“This was an extremely difficult decision, and we did not arrive at this conclusion without a significant and appropriate amount of thought, consideration and consultation,” Harlan said. “We looked at the landscape of intercollegiate beach volleyball and the future opportunities of our student-athletes. Currently, there are only 12 beach volleyball programs among power conference institutions, with little evidence of the sport expanding at this time. With the sport’s growth stunted, and without the home facilities with amenities that allow us to host championship-level events, we are not providing the world-class experience that we seek to provide to our student-athletes.”
 
The addition of the Utes’ beach volleyball program in 2017 made the Pac-12 – which was the dominant league nationally – a nine-member conference for beach volleyball. This positioned the Utah program to grow and compete on a national level as the sport was rising, but that trajectory has not continued nationally.
 
“We are mindful of the impact this decision has on the current students in our beach volleyball program, as well as on the incoming student-athletes who committed to Utah. We will work closely with each of our impacted student-athletes to provide them with all of the support they need. Should any member of the team decide to remain at the University, their scholarship will be honored through the receipt of their undergraduate degree, and the incoming student-athletes also will have their scholarship offers honored. Should a current or incoming student-athlete elect to pursue their sport at another school, Utah will do all that it can to facilitate the process. Scholarship funds previously dedicated to the beach volleyball program will be redirected to our other women’s sports programs.”
 
With the discontinuation of beach volleyball, Utah will now sponsor 19 intercollegiate sport programs.