University of San Diego to add NCAA women’s beach volleyball team

SAN DIEGO — The University of San Diego is adding another team sport. Women’s beach volleyball will be the school’s 18th sport and will begin in the spring of 2027.

CBS 8’s Karthik Venkataraman sat down with USD athletic director Kimya Massey to about what adding one of the fastest-growing women’s sports means to the school.

The team will be the first NCAA Division 1 beach volleyball college team in San Diego.

“So excited for what this is going to do to the community,” Massey said. “USD and really for young women from this area, but also around the country because we think we could be really competitive from day one.”

The NCAA has recognized how fast women’s beach volleyball is growing. 

Massey said 50 high schools in the San Diego area have beach volleyball teams and he had high praise for the local club teams as well.

“You know, if you look at the club volleyball scene in San Diego, it’s literally the best in the country,” he said. “The Wave and The Coast up in Del Mar are two incredible clubs. I think we can capitalize on recruiting locally.”

USD will join a very competitive West Coast Conference. Loyola Marymount, one of the WCC’s member schools, was the national runner-up in beach volleyball this past season.

Massey believes the Toreros can go toe to toe with the top programs once they jumpstart the program.

“Franky, I think we can win a national championship here,” he said. “I’ve said since I got this job, we should be one of the more competitive mid-majors in the country. And this is another piece of that because I really feel like we can win at this sport at a very high level very quickly.”

Typically, Olympic sports like beach volleyball aren’t revenue generators, but Massey sees value in them other than winning.

This past summer, Toreros tennis player Oliver Tarvet played on center court at Wimbledon against one of the top players in the world, Carlos Alcaraz.

Massey feels those kinds of moments of Olympic sport athletes doing things at the big stage can help build USD’s reputation.

He feels beach volleyball can do that with the expectation that they will get talented players.

“Why can’t we produce athletes like that every couple of years? I think it’s something that is really feasible. It just goes to show that whether you’re looking at football or basketball, that automatically get eyeballs, there are some other sports that could really have some success here at USD. And now, adding beach volleyball, there’s a lot of scope and visibility there for not only our athletes and our kids but our university as a whole.”

 USD is looking at options on campus to build an arena to play in and is planning to hire the program’s first head coach by September.