Nebraska announced on January 9, 2013 that it would add beach volleyball as the school's 22nd intercollegiate sport. The Nebraska Cornhuskers women's beach volleyball team began play in the spring of 2013. In 2016, the NCAA began holding an officially sponsored beach volleyball tournament (previously the sport was run by the AVCA), but Nebraska did not attempt to qualify, feeling it didn't make sense from a logistical standpoint. Despite the sport's increasing popularity (55 teams now compete in Division I), Nebraska runs one of the only beach volleyball programs in the Midwest, and generally plays its entire season during a spring break trip to California and Hawaii. Nebraska's beach roster is composed entirely of players from its indoor program, and according to head coach John Cook, the school plans to use beach volleyball primarily as a training tool for indoor for the time being.