Members of the volleyball team are also a part of the newly formed Saint Leo Beach Volleyball team. Credit: @SaintLeoBeachVB
The newest Saint Leo sport, beach volleyball, is about to kick off their season. The team consists of players from the volleyball team as of right now, but that will not be the case going into the future.
“Our expectations are to create an environment where we can be as competitive as possible and really represent Saint Leo in a great way,” says assistant beach volleyball coach Erik Peterson. “It is definitely a separate season, and as we continue to grow the team we will have student- athletes that will compete for just the beach team exclusively.”
Beach volleyball requires the players to perform in all areas on the court, compared to regular volleyball where a player can specialize in one or two different positions. On the beach volleyball court, the players have to be able to pass, set, serve, block and defend at a very high proficiency. Even though many would believe that volleyball and beach volleyball take the same amount of conditioning and strength, beach volleyball takes a different toll on the body.
Peterson added that “every day we are getting more and more comfortable with the change of surface. It generally takes three weeks to get your ‘Sand Legs’ so the first part of January was kind of rough.”
Even though the sports are similar in the visual aspect, the rules and structure between the two can be difficult to adapt to at first.
“Beach volleyball is much more training based since we are very limited to the interaction that we can have with the teams during our matches. We can only talk during timeouts and on side changes compared to indoor where you are constantly feeding in information to the team. Some duals that we’ll compete in we will have all five teams going at once so at times, the players will be responsible for identifying adjustments that need to be made and implementing them during play.”
The fan experience is a completely different animal where they are allowed to be vocal, compared to other sports which can have rules regarding when the crowd is able to cheer. The structure of the game is very entertaining and allows the fans to feel a part of the game.
The season kicks off toward the tail end of spring break on March 17, when the team competes in Lakeland against both Stevenson and Florida Southern. Make sure to go support them when they play their first game on campus during the Saint Leo Invitational toward the end of the month.
