Final Serve: Utah Beach Volleyball Program Ends After Years of Progress and Fight for Fair Play

By: Jaydin Kroutil

 

Amid the pressure of the Big 12 Tournament in Texas during the final weekend of April, the Utah beach volleyball team huddled in the sand, cheering and savoring what they thought was just the beginning of a bright future. They didn’t know it would be the end of the program. After years of fighting for their place amongst NCAA beach volleyball, Utah Athletics announced the team would be discontinued. 

“We were obviously not expecting anything like that, so it was very upsetting when [Mark Harlan] came in. It was a very quick conversation that we were being cut and there was not a lot of debate about it,” Milan Ray, a sophomore on the team, said in a recent Fox 13 interview.

The U's beach volleyball team, ranked No. 21 nationally, has overcome significant obstacles since its 2017 founding, including limited funding and institutional support, said senior Sonja Wessel, who joined as a freshman for the 2022 season.

Wessel, a senior on the team, said this season marked a milestone as the program’s first recruited players celebrated their senior night at the Utah Beach Classic, highlighting five years of progress despite challenges like indoor training necessitated by mountain weather.

“It is really rewarding to see how far we’ve come and how much we have defied the odds in the sport of beach volleyball [in] Utah,” she added.

Founded under Head Coach Brenda Whicker, who recently retired after the team’s last match of the season, Utah’s beach volleyball team established its foundation in 2021 with a roster of top-tier recruits on their way to the program. 

Players, including Abby Karich and Marissa Koch, who were part of the program in its early years, have spoken out on social media. Over the past nine years, the team has fought for everything from access to a locker room and athletic trainers to improved jerseys, funding, and basic program support.

Koch posted a TikTok speaking about her experience on the team. In the video, she said, “We fought every year for more privileges and rights… We had to fight for branding on our backpacks, we had hammy-down jerseys from softball, our coach was listed as a ‘Camp Director’... This [discontinuation] is just a setback for volleyball in the US.”

Karich also posted a TikTok video speaking on the recent news and reflecting on her experience, saying, “We went on a 10-day travel trip down the coast of California without a trainer. The school gave us nothing.”

By this season, the team had earned new jerseys, access to facilities, a locker room, and a spot in the national top 25 rankings—proof of just how far they had come.

The team’s pursuit of long-term success came to a sudden halt after head coach and program founder Brenda Whicker retired following the final match of the season. Shortly after, Utah athletic director Mark Harlan announced the beach volleyball program would be discontinued at the end of the academic year, bringing an end to nine years of competition, progress, and ongoing efforts for equality and funding.

“This was an extremely difficult decision, and we did not arrive at this conclusion without a significant and appropriate amount of thought, consideration and consultation," Harlan told Utah Athletics in the recent Beach Volleyball article. "We looked at the landscape of intercollegiate beach volleyball and the future opportunities of our student-athletes. Currently, there are only 12 beach volleyball programs among power conference institutions, with little evidence of the sport expanding at this time…” 

Throughout the season, the team produced its own media coverage, and continues to do so even after the news broke. With an independently run TikTok page, players have shared emotional videos and content to spread awareness and rally support for their program.

This initiative isn’t new. All season, the team posted funny and lighthearted videos that helped grow their audience and connect with fans.

“We have to take the initiative ourselves because we can't always rely on others to do it for us,” said team member Wessel.

Maeve Griffin, a graduate student, added that building a social media presence has helped the team connect with peers on campus, and now, they hope it can expand their outreach and support efforts to save the program.

“For our age group, TikTok has done a lot of outreach for us… We want people to see our team and how hard we work,” she said.

The team has also reached out and shared its story on local media outlets, including ABC4Utah and Fox13, continuing to advocate for the program and its future.

Several players have already entered the transfer portal, seeking opportunities to continue their beach volleyball careers at other schools, according to ABC4Utah. Here, Ellyn Collins, a redshirt senior, says that there is no point in her staying at Utah if she isn’t playing her sport.

Just before the end of the season, Wessel said Utah’s recent success could inspire other non-coastal schools to add beach volleyball and help grow the sport at the collegiate level. But Utah Athletics thought differently. The decision to end the program left players looking back on their final celebration, unaware it would be their last.

“These are my best friends, and all of their college careers are being impacted,” Griffin told Fox13. 

Ray added: “We are losing our family.”