Beach volleyball Santa Monica Athletic Club. In the summer of 1930, while waiting for players to show up for a six-man game at the Santa Monica Athletic Club, Johnson decided to try playing with only the four people present, forming two two-man teams for the first recorded beach volleyball doubles game. The players realized that with fewer players on the court, a taller player's height advantage could be neutralized by a shorter player's speed and ball control. The popularity of the two-man game spread to other nearby beach clubs and eventually to the public courts. Though recreational games continue to be played
Beach volleyball the 2010–11 academic year, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) began sponsoring women's beach volleyball, which it initially called "sand volleyball", as an "emerging" sport. Initially, it was sponsored only for Division II, with Division I added the following academic year. NCAA competition follows standard beach volleyball rules, with competitions involving five doubles-teams from each participating school. Beach volleyball became a fully sanctioned NCAA championship sport in the 2015–16 school year, following votes by leaders of all three NCAA divisions to launch a single all-divisions national championship. At the end of June 2015, the NCAA dropped the name of "sand