Gulf Shores awarded NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship through 2024
Gulf Shores and Orange Beach Sports Commission • October 14, 2020
Event moving to California in 2025-26 after 9 years at Gulf Place
(OBA®) – GULF SHORES AND ORANGE BEACH, AL – On Oct. 14, 2020, the NCAA announced its future championship site selections through 2026, including awarding the 2023-2024 Beach Volleyball Championships to the city of Gulf Shores. Gulf Shores, the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and the Gulf Shores & Orange Beach Sports Commission will continue to host the event at Gulf Place – the city’s main public beach.
“To say we are proud and looking forward to continuing the NCAA beach volleyball tradition along Alabama’s beaches is an understatement,” said Beth Gendler, vice president of sales for the Gulf Shores & Orange Beach Sports Commission. “The city of Gulf Shores, UAB, the Sports Commission and other partners work tirelessly to make our destination the go-to for beach volleyball, showcasing our sugar-white sand on the national stage with NCAA and ESPN.”
Coming off several months of event cancellations and modifications due to COVID-19 across the globe, including the 2020 NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship, the announcement brings hope to the future of sporting events and continuing to grow beach volleyball.
In conjunction with the NCAA event, the Gulf Coast Region of USA Volleyball hosts hundreds of youth and adult pairs adjacent to the championship site for national qualifiers. Two 2020 Gulf Shores High School graduates and USA Volleyball standouts, Marti McLaurin and Lauren Quigley, are now playing beach volleyball at the collegiate level – McLaurin at UAB and Quigley at the University of North Alabama.
The championship will move for the first time since the inaugural 2016 NCAA-sanctioned season to Huntingdon Beach, CA, for 2025-2026, after being in Gulf Shores for nine years. For more information on the future NCAA site selections, visit http://bit.ly/NCAAselections. For information on upcoming athletic events along Alabama’s Gulf Coast, visit GulfShores.com/Sports, or call 1-800-745-SAND.
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