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UTEP Athletics to Add Beach Volleyball as 17th D-I Sport in 2023

1/21/2022 12:00:00 PM


UTEP VB Head Coach Ben Wallis Interview

EL PASO, TEXAS – UTEP Director of Athletics Jim Senter announced on Friday that Beach Volleyball will join the Miners' sport lineup in the spring of 2023.  The addition of Beach will give UTEP a total of 17 Division I teams.  It marks UTEP's first sport addition since softball began competition in 2004.
 
 
UTEP Volleyball Coach Ben Wallis will also serve as the Miners' first Beach Volleyball Coach.  Wallis has led the Miners to a record of 47-30 in three seasons (2019-Present) with a mark of 22-16 in C-USA.  Last year, the Miners enjoyed a record-breaking campaign as they posted the best win percentage in school history (24-8, .750) and played in a postseason tournament (NIVC) for the first time.
 
"We can't be more excited about starting a Beach Volleyball program that will be in great hands with coach Wallis," Senter said.  "As our Miner volleyball team has made a rapid ascent over the last few years, Beach Volleyball has continued its rise to national prominence.  It was natural that we bring UTEP and Beach Volleyball together.  It promises to be an exciting spectator sport, one that our fans can enjoy in some of the best weather our country has to offer."
 
"We're looking forward to it," Wallis said.  "It's going to be a lot of work.  But we've done it before.  We've grown UTEP into a viable indoor program.  We're looking forward to growing UTEP Beach Volleyball into a program that can compete for a conference championship in the near future."
 
Conference USA added Beach Volleyball as a sponsored sport last fall.  This spring, a total of seven schools are participating in Beach as affiliate members of C-USA – Coastal Carolina, Florida Atlantic, FIU, Georgia State, Southern Miss, UAB and ULM.  All are expected to continue competing in Beach as affiliate members of C-USA in the spring of 2023.
 
"Conference USA is one of the toughest Beach conferences in the country, and with the addition of UTEP as the eighth Beach team in the league, C-USA will have an automatic qualifier for the NCAA Championships in 2023," Wallis said.
 
The Beach Volleyball season begins in late February and continues through April.  The average Beach team is composed of 15-20 student-athletes with a total of six scholarships available.  There will be some crossover in student-athlete representation between the UTEP Volleyball and Beach Volleyball rosters.  
 
The format of competition is two teams squaring off against one another through a series of pairings.  Each pairing plays a best-of-three format with the winner decided in a best-of-five result.  
 
The NCAA conducted its first Beach Volleyball national championship in 2016, and the NCAA Championship field has been expanded to 16 teams for 2022.  The sport has seen rapid growth over the past five years with 175 programs across the country currently competing, including 64 in Division I.
 
The Miners' home competition site for Beach Volleyball is to be determined.
 
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