It has been a long time coming, but the much anticipated kick-off to the beach volleyball season is less than a month away. The schedule was officially released last week, and it shows the Waves are set to play against USC, Florida State and Long Beach State in a three-day tournament starting Friday, March 13.

The schedule continues with the sand volleyball team playing on the road at Charleston in South Carolina, where they will face another set of three schools; Alabama-Birmingham on March 23, followed by the host Cougars, and finally Mercer.

The reason behind all the traveling and playing away from home is simple: Pepperdine has committed to allow the team to play in various tournaments to see the different competition around the country. So far, only four schools in California are sponsoring sand volleyball, but the Waves will get a chance to host a home game in early April at Zuma beach.

Junior transfer Summer Ross was added to the roster this semester. In her career, Ross has garnered quite a few accomplishments, winning both the FIVB Youth World Championship and the FIVB Junior World Championship in the same year. She was also named USA Volleyball Beach Female Athlete of the Year in 2010.

Joining Ross is junior Caitlin Racich, who became the first recipient of a beach volleyball scholarship last fall, as well as the 14 members of the Wave’s 2011 indoor squad.

“As a team we expect to do very well this year. A lot of the players have experience playing beach recreationally and with Summer Ross joining us, we’re going to be an even strong team” junior Victoria Adelhelm said.

Being the new sport that it is, the Waves are trying out various formats of competition throughout the season in order to see what is the best fit for collegiate sand volleyball. In the plans is to play dual matches, where 10 two-person teams (five from each school), battle against each other with each match worth one point. The overall dual match is decided when one team secures three points. Similarly to tennis, sand volleyball will also play in individual tournaments. Doubles pairs will be placed in brackets and compete in a single elimination contest until an overall winner is crowned.

The season will conclude with the AVCA National Championship on April 27-29 in Gulf Shores, Ala.  As an emerging sport, the NCAA has decided not to sponsor a sand volleyball national championship in 2012. This leaves the competition consisting of both a team championship, which will include the top four NCAA women’s sand teams, and a pairs championship, which will consist of the top-16 collegiate doubles teams.

Still, the team is enthusiastic of the competition to come.

“We’ve been working really hard and I think it’s going to pay off for us. All of the girls competed last semester on the Pepperdine indoor team and we’re coming off a really strong season with a great finish. We’re all hoping to keep that momentum going towards the sand season and be even more successful in Alabama come April,” Adelhelm concluded.