Volleyball pair to play in POWERade Collegiate Beach Championship
NEW YORK -- Freshman opposite hitter Ashley Engle and junior libero Alyson Jennings will represent the Texas Volleyball team at the inaugural POWERade Collegiate Beach Volleyball Championship, April 22 in San Diego Calif. CSTV is partnering with the AVCA and AVP to feature the nation's top women's collegiate volleyball players, who will compete for the collegiate beach title during the CSTV Collegiate Nationals. The event is a first-of-its kind event that crowns national champions in nine sports and will be held in Reno, Nevada on April 12-15 and in San Diego on April 20-22. Engle, a First Team All-Big 12 and Second Team AVCA All-America selection, headlined the Texas attack in 2006, hammering out a team-high 463 kills and posting a team-best 3.99 kills per-game average. In her inaugural season, the 2006 Big 12 Conference Freshman of the Year ranked second on the squad in digs (329), digs per-game (2.84), service aces (33) and assists (89), while ranking third on the team with 88 total blocks. Jennings, a three-year starter in the UT back row, led the Horns in digs in 2006 for the third time in as many seasons, tallying 425 digs and 3.66 digs per-game. The Costa Mesa, Calif., native ranked third on the 2006 squad with 15 service aces and currently ranks sixth all-time in career digs at UT with 1,173 total digs. The volleyball event showcases eight, two-person teams selected from the nation's top volleyball programs. The other seven schools participating are Nebraska (Sarah Pavan and Jordan Larson), Stanford (Cynthia Barboza and Bryn Kehoe), Penn State (Nicole Fawcett and Roberta Holehouse), Minnesota (Jessie Jones and Rachel Hartmann), Florida (Angie McGinnis and Marcie Hampton), San Diego (Jaimarie Sutherland and Andrea Csaszi) and Utah (Airial Salvo and Sydney Anderson) "Along with our great partners the AVCA and AVP, we've taken the next step in developing the Collegiate Beach Volleyball Championship, turning it into an annual must-see event," said Tim Pernetti, Executive Vice President, Content, CSTV. "We're proud to have created this unique championship as part of the Collegiate Nationals and are excited to showcase the nation's top college players and teams." "The collegiate beach championship is an exciting event for volleyball," said AVCA Executive Director Kathy DeBoer. "It gives us a venue to spotlight our elite young players and provides the opportunity for year-round exposure for our sport. The innovative thinkers at CSTV and the AVP absolutely 'served an ace' with this idea." The championship will adhere strictly to NCAA guidelines for college volleyball and will be televised on May 18-20. In addition to volleyball, San Diego will host a collegiate film festival and Championships for flowboarding and wakeboarding. This year's Collegiate Nationals competition will again bring together athletes from nearly 100 different colleges and universities across the country and will ultimately crown National Champions in more than nine categories. For more information, visit . Texas' full squad takes to the court April 14 at the 2007 Great Lakes Center NCAA Spring Invitational in Aurora, Illinois. The Longhorns will begin pool play with matches against Georgia Tech and Iowa before beginning bracket play.
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