If women’s volleyball stakeholders have their way, bump sets and kills won’t be reserved for the fall, or for the hardwood.

Sand volleyball, which would be played in the spring, is on the verge of being added to the NCAA list of emerging sports for women. The Divisions I and II governance structures will vote on the matter in January now that sand volleyball has garnered the requisite 10 letters from presidents and athletics directors who would consider sponsoring it at their institutions.

Division III isn’t that far along yet, preferring instead to seek more information about how the sport would be conducted at the varsity level – especially questions about squad size and facility issues – before asking their members to grant emerging-sport status.

Participation numbers indicate the sport – similar to the “beach volleyball” version made popular through the Olympics – would have an ample feeder system. According to a 2007 Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association report, more than 200,000 females participate in the sport, including 32,654 females under the age of 18 in the U.S. who are “frequent participants.” Sand volleyball is not currently a high school sport, but the number of girls playing only the sand version of the game with frequency is more than the other emerging-sports participation in high schools.

The same research revealed that sand volleyball had increased by 35 percent among core participants since 2006. That compared with just a 2.3 percent increase in the indoor court game.

“With an emerging sport, you are always looking to see if there is interest and ability,” said Kathy DeBoer, the executive director of the American Volleyball Coaches Association. “The sport keeps growing. Girls choose to play this sport. That makes a compelling argument for adding it to our college campuses.”

It’s not a foreign concept to the collegiate crowd. In recent years, CBS College Sports Network and conferences such as the Southeastern Conference have conducted sand volleyball tournaments for more than 40 schools.

But not everyone is convinced that sand volleyball will create the new opportunities intended. Some think there will be too much overlap between the indoor and outdoor games to attract “new” players.

DeBoer said there will be crossover, but not enough to keep sand volleyball from emerging.

“If you go back to the dawn of Title IX and look at the fact that you were sharing athletes from different sports, you would have never started any new teams,” DeBoer said. “If you started a water polo team, you didn’t go to the cross country team to find players. You went to the swim team to see if anyone had experience playing the sport. As you start a sand volleyball team, who are the likely candidates to have the skill set necessary to play the sport? It’s going to be kids who have experience playing the game.”

The buy-in for sand volleyball also is complicated by the reputation its beach cousin has, because of what competitors wear (or don't wear). But in the college version, don’t expect to see bikini-clad student-athletes.

“When we played in an indoor sand tournament last spring, we wore the same type of ‘razorback’ tops you would see in field hockey or track and field,” said Delaware women’s volleyball coach Bonnie Kenny.

The sand game also differs in that participants must be more versatile than their indoor counterparts.

“On the sand, you have to know how to do everything,” Kenny said. “If you take (Olympic gold medalists) Kerri Walsh and Misty May, one of them does some things better than the other. They are both pretty athletic.”

DeBoer also said that in the sand, passing, setting and digging is more important than hitting and blocking. “You never get to hit and block if you can’t handle the ball,” she said. “In the indoor game, you can be a hitter or a blocker and other people are responsible for the passing and setting.”

According to the proposal, sand volleyball would be scored similar to tennis. Teams would have five two-woman teams and flight them 1-5. The team that wins the majority of the matches would be the winner.

Sand volleyball, which could become an NCAA emerging sport for women, would have its season in the spring. Photos Courtesy of Southeastern Conference