By: Laney Burns | Guest Contributor
When most athletes head to college, they are joining an established college program, but when the University of Lynchburg’s beach volleyball players arrived, there was nothing, not even sand.
The era that started back in 2022, when a group of girls built an entire program from scratch, comes to an end as its original members enter their last season at the University of Lynchburg.
The remaining members from the first beach volleyball team at Lynchburg include:
“We didn’t know what to expect, ‘cause nobody here has done it before,” senior Mady Shirey says. “Nobody here had played a collegiate sport before in general, and the school hadn’t had a team.”
With no upperclassmen or traditions to follow, players and coaches had to decide from day one what kind of program they wanted to create.
The beach volleyball team knew that building a program from scratch would be difficult, but the challenge didn’t stop them; it pushed them.
“We didn’t have an established program to come into with an established status or presence on campus,” senior Savannah Yanz says. “We had to work hard and always spread the word when we had home games to get the support of our peers on campus.”
With hard work, what started as an empty court became one of the most competitive small-college beach volleyball programs, with a third-seed ranking going into the 2025 AVCA Small College Beach Championship.
As the original members from the first team conclude their final season, the culture that they built will endure for future Lynchburg beach volleyball players.
“If you can maintain a culture and win a championship, that means that’s gonna last for a long time, and people want to be a part of it,” said Nathan Jensen, assistant coach of the team.
For more information about the University of Lynchburg’s beach volleyball team, visit: https://lynchburgsports.com/sports/womens-beach-volleyball.
