COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (September 9, 2021) – A new men’s beach event begins Friday, Sept. 10, as USA Volleyball’s Men’s Collegiate Beach Challenge takes to the sand in Owing Mills, Md.
The event, hosted at Stevenson University, gives 33 men’s collegiate beach pairs the chance to test their skills in a competitive environment. Top finishers will have an opportunity to be invited to future National Team Development Program (NDTP) events.
Of the 33 teams, 20 will open the tournament in the main draw. The other 13 will compete in the qualifier for one of four main draw berths.
The main draw will consist of six pools of four teams seeded by ranking points. Pools will be conducted under modified pool play rules where teams play only two pool matches. The winners of the first match (seed 1v4, 2v3) will play each other for a pool title, and the losers will play for third and fourth place. Each pool’s top two teams plus the best four third-place teams will advance to the knockout rounds.
Five athletes already part of the Beach NDTP will participate. Tim Brewster, Charlie Siragusa and Noah Dyer each earned spots on the 2021 Beach Collegiate National Team. Also, Matt Gentry and Peyten Young of the Beach U21 National Team will compete. Brewster, Siragusa, Gentry and Young will each begin in the main draw while Dyer begins play in the qualifier.
Play begins at noon Eastern Friday with the first of the qualification matches. The main draw will run September 11-12.
All four courts will be livestreamed on the Stevenson Athletics website. Additionally, the stream will be available on Stevenson’s channels on Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple TV and Android TV.