The domestic pro beach season officially kicked off this past weekend with the first tourney of the year, the NVL at the Preakness in Kentucky. No surprise on the women's side as Jen and April won the title over Kropp and Pavlik. But on the men's side, Todd and Phil were upset in three by Casey Patterson and his new partner Ryan Doherty.

Doherty, a big relative newcomer playing in just his ninth event and whose best finish was 17th prior to last weekend, teamed up with Patterson for the first time in this tournament. Seeded No. 10, the two were not expected to challenge the Olympic gold medalists. Nonetheless, they walked away with the 15-13 victory in set three in front of a good crowd in tandem with the Preakness.

The next beach tournament in the U.S. is the first Jose Cuervo event in Fort Lauderdale, FL on Memorial Day weekend.

On the international side, the two U.S. women's teams we will see in London are set. Jen Kessy and April Ross clinched the second spot and will join Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor at the Olympics.

The men are still in a dead heat for the second spot. Fuerbringer/Lucena and Gibb/Rosenthal are tied with 4,920 points. For the time being these two teams are at the top of the Swatch World Tour Rankings - Gibb/Rosie are No. 1 with 1,880 points. Fuerbringer/Lucena are in the No. 2 spot with 1,800 pts. There are just three tournaments left for one of these teams to make its move and qualify for London. The first of the three opportunities is this week in the Czech Republic, so this is going to be fun.

Who do you think should represent the U.S. at the Olympics? Submit your answer in the poll.

Sand volleyball may get a boost from the misfortune of men's tennis. The UC Riverside Athletic Department is considering dropping its men's tennis program and instead starting a women's sand volleyball team.

The school says that the men's tennis is not funded at a level where it can be competitive. The UCR men's tennis team had a 6-18 record last season and went 0-5 in league play. The program is not very popular either, it has trouble drawing crowds and the AD says the courts don't get used when the varsity team isn't using them. Sand volleyball, on the other hand, has high club level interest.

According to the University's estimation, the school would save over $150,000 annually by switching to sand volleyball once the courts are constructed. They would use the money to create some full-time coaching positions for other sports.

The university has put the question out to the community for public comment to see if they would object to losing the men's tennis program. No word on how their response will be considered in the decision.

The tennis community has weighed in and they, of course, don't want to see the end of the program. There are only six men's tennis programs left in the Big West and losing UCR would be a big blow. I know it's sad to see men's programs go, but when the program in question is underfunded, unpopular and expensive, doesn't it make sense to move on?

If schools start to think about bottom lines and cost efficiency, sand volleyball comes out ahead. That's a great selling point and could trigger an upward trend for our sport.  If we want college sand volleyball to thrive, and I think it needs to for the future of the sport at the international and professional levels, something else has to go. Their loss, our gain. What say you, volleyball fans?

Pool play began last week for the first leg of the World League tournament and the results page is full of surprises. Among them, No. 18 Canada beating No. 1 Brazil in five, No. 27 Finland beating No. 4 Poland in five and No. 5 Cuba beating No. 2 Russia in five. We were not spared either, No. 6 USA lost to No. 21 France.

The USA men beat Korea in five sets, but lost to France in four and Italy in three. They tend to start off slowly in this tournament for some reason, but add to that the emotional qualification process they just went through plus a trip overseas and that could explain why they're bringing up the rear in their pool.

The good news is that every other team in the tournament lost at least one match with the exception of the only undefeated squad, Italy. Brazil, currently ranked No. 1 in the world, also went 1-2 through the first weekend of competition. They were without two of the team's stars - Giba (knee) and Murilo (shoulder) - which could explain that uncharacteristic loss to Canada, a team that proved how dangerous it can be with its NORCECA performance.

Even though Korea lost to the Americans and went 0-3 in pool play, they are actually ahead of the U.S. in the pool on points because of the way World League matches are scored. Teams that win in three or four sets are awarded three points while the loser gets none. Teams that win in five sets earn two points while the loser gets one. Korea went five sets in all three matches so they earned three points. The U.S. won its match in five so they were awarded two points for that and none for losing in three and four sets in their other matches.

The schedule for the tournament is a bit different this year due to the Olympics. In order to accommodate the last Olympic qualifier tournaments, there is a break in competition. The U.S. will be back in action on June 15th in Lyon, France. They'll head to Korea after that and finish up pool play in Dallas on June 29th-July 1st.

Just one pool has yet to begin pool play. Pool D, which includes No. 9 Bulgaria, No. 8 Argentina, No. 13 Germany, and No. 34 Portugal, will compete this weekend in Frankfurt. Check out the rest of the World League schedule, standings and results here.

When USA Volleyball does something right, we have to give credit where credit is due. Right about now, the folks that make up our organizing body are looking like geniuses. No kidding.

As volleyball fans, we spend a lot of time complaining about USAV. What they do, how they do it, who they have or don't have doing it, when they do it, why they do it. We do this for good reason. Because we care about the state of the game, about growing it and about making it better. On that, we can all agree. What we can't seem to agree on is how to go about doing it.

Last week, USAV did something right. The NORCECA event that concluded on Saturday with the USA men qualifying for London was hands down the best thing I've ever seen in my my 20+ years of watching and playing in USAV events. If you weren't able to make it, you really missed something special.

The genius part started with stepping in when an opportunity arose. Puerto Rico had a scheduling conflict that rendered them unable to host the NORCECA qualifier. USAV smartly offered to host the matches in Long Beach, just 20 minutes from the training facility in Anaheim. The Pyramid was a great choice for these matches. Not too big, not too small, great volleyball community, centrally located and easy to get to from almost anywhere in SoCal.

They pulled it together with help from sponsors like UPS, who they couldn't thank enough for their support. They had no idea if they'd be able to draw decent crowds for this event. Volleyball fans don't always show up. Though our teams rarely get to play at home, sometimes the fans leave them hanging out to dry. USAV took the risk. They got a lot of help from some very motivated fans who took attendance and enthusiasm into their own hands by organizing events, providing signs and changing the way we cheer for volleyball. That teamwork led to a fresh, new fan experience.

Read More...