LEXINGTON, Ky. – The field is set for the American Volleyball Coaches Association Fall Collegiate Beach National Championships event as University of Tennessee at Martin standouts Lucy Kaufman and Olivia O’Keefe are one of 64 pairs who will descend upon the luxurious John Hunt Park Sand Volleyball Complex in Huntsville, Ala. this weekend.
Following a successful inaugural event last November, the second annual Fall Collegiate Beach Championships will feature top players from 40 NCAA Division I and Division II institutions across the United States. Overall, pairs from 38 Division I schools will be represented – including automatic bids from each of the 17 teams who took part in the 2023 NCAA Tournament.
This weekend will be the second consecutive trip to Huntsville for both Kaufman and O’Keefe, who both competed in a qualifying tournament on Oct. 28-29. Kaufman teamed up with Reagan McGee to go 3-3 while O’Keefe joined forces with Sydney Eckhardt to post a 3-2 record.
Kaufman/O’Keefe are assigned to Pool 9 of this weekend’s bracket, alongside USC’s Ashley Pater/Ainsley Radell, Cal Poly’s Ella Connor/Piper Ferch and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi’s Chloe Tome/Stephanie Young. The Skyhawk tandem will make their tournament debut at 11 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 3 against USC before taking on Cal Poly at 2 p.m. and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 5 p.m. The UT Martin duo will return to action on Saturday, Nov. 4 as its opponents will be based off Friday’s results. The championship round is scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 5 as all pairs are ensured to play in each of the three days.
Both Kaufman and O’Keefe earned All-Ohio Valley Conference status last spring, helping lead the Skyhawks to 27 wins and a sweep of the league’s regular season and tournament titles. A graduate from Eureka, Mo., Kaufman collected All-OVC second team honors as she combined for a 20-8 record in 2023. O’Keefe was bestowed with All-OVC first team accolades as the senior out of Scottsdale, Ariz. dialed up a 24-10 record last spring.
For more information on this weekend’s AVCA event, click here: https://volleyballlife.com/tournament/10573?tab=information.
