COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (July 17, 2025) – Two USA Volleyball beach teams are in Rhine Ruhr, Germany, for the 2025 World University Games, July 16-27. The beach volleyball competition will run from July 22-26, where the U.S. teams will compete against top collegiate athletes from around the world.

Representing the U.S. on the women’s side are Alexis Durish and Audrey Koenig, both standout athletes from Florida State University. The duo has been on a roll this summer, winning gold at the U23 NORCECA Beach Continental Tour in the Cayman Islands. They followed that performance with another gold at their first Beach Pro Tour Futures event in Geneva, Switzerland, and added a bronze medal at the Futures stop in Montpellier, France. Koenig and Durish earned their spot in Germany by winning the 2025 World University Games Trials earlier this year.

“I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to work with them (Alexis and Audrey),” said women’s head coach Patty Dodd. “They are a dynamic and steady duo.”

On the men’s side, Gage Basey (University of Colorado) and Thomas Hurst (UC Irvine) will compete for the red, white and blue. The pair has shown strong form in 2025, highlighted by a silver medal at the NORCECA U23 Intercontinental Tour in the Dominican Republic. They’ve also claimed top finishes at home, including winning the AVP Virginia Beach tournament and the men’s open division at the Pottstown Rumble. Basey and Hurst also won the 2025 World University Games Trials to secure their roster spots.

“I’m excited to work with USA Volleyball at the World University Games coming up,” said Dan Friend, head coach of the men’s team. “We have a great USA staff – coaches, trainer, analyst and lead. We also have some phenomenal and talented athletes that will represent the USA at the highest level, helping USA compete for medals.”

This event marks a return to the World University stage for several members of the U.S. delegation. Both coaches, Dan Friend and Patty Dodd, led the U.S. beach teams at the 2024 FISU World University Championships in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Durish earned a silver medal at that event alongside partner Xolani Hodel, while Basey and Hurst placed ninth overall.

Coaches and Support Staff
Men’s Head Coach: Dan Friend, Lewis University men’s indoor head coach
Women’s Head Coach: Patty Dodd, USA Volleyball Beach NTDP Coach, MB Sand
Medical Provider: Alexis Colon, Long Beach State
Performance Analyst: Will McDonald, Baylor
Team Lead: Chelsea Tupuola, USA Volleyball Beach NTDP Lead

STILLWATER – Oklahoma State men’s track & field athlete Ryan Schoppe was named College Sports Communicators (CSC) third team Academic All-American, the organization announced Wednesday.

This marks the second straight season Schoppe has been named to the CSC Academic All-America third team, becoming the fourth Cowboy track athlete to be named to the team on multiple occasions. Overall, Schoppe is the 132^nd OSU student-athlete to be named a CSC Academic All-American and the 25^th to be named to multiple teams.

On the track this season, Schoppe was a first team All-American as a member of the Distance Medley Relay indoors and helped the DMR run the second-fastest time in world history on tracks of legal length. He finished his track career as a two-time NCAA Champion as the DMR anchor in 2023 and 2024 and was a four-time Big 12 Champion.

Schoppe also scored the third most points in program history at the indoor conference meet with 41.5, finishing behind only Kirubel Erassa (2011-14, 59 points) and Alex Maier (2020-24, 54.75 points).

For more information on the Cowboys and Cowgirls, continue to check back with okstate.com. 

ABILENE – Abilene Christian will host the 2025 Western Athletic Conference Volleyball Tournament at Moody Coliseum on Nov. 20-22, the league announced Thursday. It will mark the Wildcats’ first time hosting a conference volleyball tournament in 20 years and the first instance at the Division I level.

ACU previously hosted the Lone Star Conference Tournament in 2005, when it captured the second leg of back-to-back conference titles. At that point, it had also been 20 years since the LSC tournament was last played in Abilene in 1984 and 1985. Moody Coliseum’s capacity has since increased to 3,600.

“We are so excited to have the opportunity to host the last WAC championship this fall season,” head coach Ijeoma Moronu Alstrup said. “ACU has done an amazing job behind the leadership of President Schubert that we have top-in-the-nation facilities here in Abilene, Texas. I’m really excited to showcase our amazing facilities and have a home atmosphere while we compete for the WAC Championship. Our team has had our eyes set on winning a WAC Championship since I’ve taken this position and the opportunity to win it at home for us is huge. We can’t wait for the Abilene community to come out and enjoy a great weekend full of high-level volleyball and to have their support in our pursuit of a ring!”

The WAC Tournament has been played at a different site in each of the past four seasons and was hosted by UT Arlington in 2024.

ACU kicks off its third season under Moronu Alstrup with the Wildcat Classic on Aug. 29-30 at Moody Coliseum, taking on the likes of Missouri State, Incarnate Word and Oklahoma. The Wildcats will play 11 regular season matches at home, including six WAC contests.

ACU will prepare for the regular season with the Purple and White Scrimmage on Aug. 15 at Moody Coliseum before meeting Angelo State in an exhibition match on Aug. 23 at the Dodge Jones Youth Sports Center (AYSA).

The Wildcats retain a strong core from the 2024 campaign, including four of their five leaders in kills. Avery Thaler returns to the court following her WAC All-Freshman Team selection, while Hannah Gonzalez and Abby Christian look to build upon sophomore seasons with over 230 kills and 200 digs, respectively. Gonzalez doubled as last year’s leading blocker with 73 denials.

BERLIN — Three different Toreros tallied seven kills on Wednesday, but San Diego volleyball dropped a 3-0 decision to Team Italy while representing the United States to begin play in the 2025 World University Games, falling by 25-20, 25-9, and 25-17 margins at the Horst-Korber Sportzentrum.

Nemo Beach, Izzy Clark, and Kennedy Osunsanmi led the charge for USD on offense, and were followed by Minnesota graduate transfer Kali Engeman, who added six kills of her own and paced San Diego/Team USA with a pair of blocks. Clark also did her part on defense, chipping in a match-high 11 digs.

USD/USA nearly stole the first frame, cutting an early deficit to just two when Maya Kitna notched a clutch block to make it 22-20, but her team got no closer.

The Toreros/Team USA never led in a one-sided second set, but bounced back in the third to make things interesting, keeping pace with the Italians early on before ceding the match on a service error.

From July 16-27, 2025, San Diego volleyball will join around 8,500 other student-athletes and officials from over 150 countries in competing for medals in 18 sports at the World University Games, one of the largest multi-sport events in the world. The Toreros will be representing the USA as the nation’s sole women’s volleyball team in the Games. 

Nevada State University President DeRionne Pollard is stepping down, telling The Nevada Independent that she is taking a new role leading a national community colleges organization just a month after her four-year contract was renewed.

Pollard’s last day as president will be July 31. Nevada State University (NSU) Chief of Staff and Strategy Amber Lopez Lasater will take over as the officer in charge. 

Pollard’s announcement comes about a month after the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) voted to renew her four-year contract and four months after former UNLV President Keith Whitfield announced he was stepping down. 

“It has been an honor and a privilege to have led this institution for four years, and to see that perhaps Nevada State University is no longer the best kept secret in Nevada,” she said in an interview. “It is an institution that is worthy of the recognition for the impact that it makes, the students it serves and most importantly, our future is so bright.” 

NSHE Chancellor Matt McNair said in a statement that Pollard’s leadership has “elevated the university’s role in the state and country.”

During a Monday interview, Pollard said she had not been hired for the position leading the American Association of Community Colleges when NSHE renewed her contract. She said she signed the contract for her new position Friday.

Pollard will be the first woman to lead the 105-year-old organization that advocates on behalf of more than 1,000 institutions and 10 million students across the country when she starts in September. 

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to pursue a role that, I think, will have [a] very broad-based impact on the higher education space,” she said. “It’s an opportunity, I think, to advocate in a space that will also hopefully benefit Nevada as well as the rest of the country.” 

She also shared her concerns on how the Trump administration’s policies will affect the university and its students, as well as her hopes for NSU’s future as it looks to expand its footprint outside of Henderson. 

Pollard’s legacy

In 2021, Pollard became eighth president of Nevada State University, the Henderson-based institution founded in 2002 that serves more than 7,000 students. She became the first Black woman to permanently lead any institution within the Nevada System of Higher Education.

Pollard took over from Bart Patterson, the institution’s longest-serving president, who announced he would not seek a contract renewal after leading the college for nearly 10 years. Prior to coming to Nevada, Pollard led Maryland’s largest community college, Montgomery College, for about nine years. 

One of Pollard’s most notable accomplishments was successfully transitioning Nevada State from a college to university, but she said not much has changed for her students and staff since the conversion two years ago. 

She said the change was more about making sure Nevada State’s name reflected its mission as a four-year institution that offers more than 40 programs of study for undergraduates and graduate students and is engaged in workforce development. The change, she said, helped eliminate any confusion about the campus being seen as a two-year institution or private college but rather as a “mid-tier institution,” separate from the state’s community colleges and UNLV and UNR, both of which have been recognized as R1 institutions for their high level of research. 

“I think we used this as an opportunity to reintroduce ourselves to the community in a way that was very intentional, and I’d like to say that it has resonated deeply,” she said. 

Trump administration

Earlier this year, the Trump administration cut about 40 grants totaling nearly $40 million at UNLV and UNR. 

A university spokesperson said in a statement that had a federal grant terminated resulting in the loss of one full-time position and an hourly position. 

“We will continue to evaluate the potential impacts of the most recent federal spending bill as well as other federal actions,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

Pollard nonetheless said she’s worried about  how the administration’s recently approved spending bill, which included significant cuts to health care and nutrition programs, could affect the state’s ability to fund higher education.

“We know that that will trickle to the states, and oftentimes states, when they happen to make very difficult decisions around insurance for underserved or vulnerable populations … where they typically also have some concerns and look to draw money from would be from higher education,” she said. 

Historically, higher education budget cuts result in tuition increases, decrease in state and instructional financial aid for students and sacrificing support services such as food pantries, transportation and child care. 

NSU’s future

Nevada State University is embarking on a new chapter this year with the launch of its athletics department, which will include women’s flag football and men’s track and field — programs not currently offered in Nevada at the collegiate level. She said there’s a number of high schools in the area that already have girls flag football programs. The Scorpions will be able to cheer for their new teams as early as spring 2026. 

“We know our niche,” Pollard said. “We’re not going to be a D1. We’re not trying to replicate what you see at UNLV or UNR.” 

Leading the new department will be the university’s inaugural athletics director, Yvonne Wade, who served as an athletics director and assistant athletic director at the College of Southern Nevada and director of track and field and cross-country at UNLV. She started earlier this month. 

Pollard said NSU leadership and alumni have long been asking for an athletics department. It also made sense to keep up with the rest of the region as it becomes more sports-centric. 

“If we were not active in sports, that means that we’re being left behind and we don’t want our students to be left behind,” she said. “We want to be an active participant in the economy of our region.”

Aside from sports, NSU is setting its sights on expanding its footprint and working to develop a three-story, 30,000-square-foot satellite campus in North Las Vegas’ downtown area.

The university is still deciding what programs will be offered there, but Lopez Lasater said the new building will include student support services such as financial aid, enrollment and tutoring. 

North Las Vegas Mayor Pamela Goynes-Brown said in a statement that the partnership “will leave a lasting legacy that will open doors for generations.”

The university is also partnering with the City of Las Vegas to establish a center in the medical district that would be focused on juvenile health care education and provide clinical services to youth. 

“We’re looking to continue all of the good work that has already been done, and then to build on it,” Lopez Lasater said. 

Updated at 12 p.m. on 7/16/25 to add statements from chancellor and North Las Vegas mayor and at 5:45 p.m. to note federal cut impact.

VESTAL, N.Y. (binghamtonbearcats.com) –  Binghamton Volleyball welcomes Jaidan Degear to the 2025 coaching staff, announced Head Coach Allie Yaeger Thursday afternoon. Degear joins Chris Weathers as the Bearcats’ assistant coaches for the 2025 season. 

“I’m excited to announce the addition of Jaidan to our coaching staff,” said Yaeger. “She will help assist in all aspects of our program, from on court instruction to team travel. It will be nice to have another voice in the gym and help towards our future success.”

Degear brings experience in collegiate and club volleyball to Vestal, with a strong emphasis on athlete development, team culture and strategic growth. 

She most recently served as a student assistant coach with the SUNY Cortland women’s volleyball team from 2022 to 2024. There, Degear played a key role in practice planning, skill development, and game strategy, helping guide the Red Dragons through multiple competitive seasons.

Additionally, Degear coached U16 and U18 teams at KODA Volleyball Club, leading high-level training sessions focused on technical skill advancement and fostering a positive team environment. Her experience also includes a stint as a student manager for the Alfred University women’s volleyball team in 2021.

A native of DeRuyter, N.Y., Degear received her Bachelor of Science in Coaching at SUNY Cortland in January 2025. She is certified as an Emergency Medical Technician and holds CPR/AED credentials.

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