MACON, Ga. - The finals of the 2016 Atlantic Sun Conference and the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association (CCSA) Beach Volleyball Championships will be available to a worldwide audience via ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app, the A-Sun announced on Wednesday.
The A-Sun and the CCSA host their 2016 Beach Volleyball Championships April 22-24, at the Rally Volleyball Complex at LakePoint Sporting Community in Emerson, Ga. Both finals will be held Sunday, April 24, with CCSA scheduled for a 1 p.m. ET start, followed by the A-Sun final at 3 p.m. ET.
"Once again we have increased the opportunities for student-athletes and this growing sport to reach larger audiences via our partnership with ESPN," said A-Sun Associate Commissioner/SWA Meredith Eaker. "We are also excited to build upon our partnership with the LakePoint Sporting Community as it hosts its first ever A-Sun Championship. We look forward to continuing the growth of this relationship to benefit the CCSA as well as other A-Sun sports in the future."
The Spring 2016 season and the April championship is the first for the CCSA, which features its eight founding members: University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), Florida Atlantic University (FAU), Florida International University (FIU), Florida State University, Georgia State University, Louisiana State University (LSU), University of South Carolina and Tulane University.
Florida State is ranked No. 2, Georgia State at No. 8 and FIU at No. 10 in the March 14 AVCA Coaches Poll.
Beach volleyball became the 90th championship sponsored by the NCAA this past summer after being officially recognized as an NCAA sport for the 2011-12 season. The first NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship will be conducted on May 5-7, 2016 in Gulf Shores, Ala., and hosted by CCSA member UAB. The NCAA does not currently offer automatic qualification (AQ) into the beach volleyball championship for conference winners (a two-year championship history is required), but the A-Sun and the CCSA will be in position to qualify for an AQ should they be offered in 2018.
The CCSA formed in 2007 as a partnership among swimming and diving programs in the Atlantic Sun Conference, Big South Conference, Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and Southern Conference to provide championship opportunities for the men's and women's swimming and diving student-athletes. Conference growth in swimming and diving now shows 15 institutions with competitors from eight separate Division I multisport conferences. With the addition of beach volleyball, the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association now has 22 member institutions with participants from 11 different NCAA Division I multisport conferences.
Currently yielding over a million visitors in its first year, LakePoint is on track to be one of the world's largest and most unique destinations for travel sports. With more than 1,300 acres nestled in the foothills of the North Georgia Mountains and adjacent to beautiful Lake Allatoona, LakePoint will feature state-of-the-art sports venues and five million square feet of amenities including onsite hotels, restaurants, themed retail, bowling, ziplines, water parks and much, much more.
