Gators Claim SEC Coaches Beach Volleyball Challenge Individual Title
Tuesday, April 20, 2010 | Volleyball
Playing in an all-University of Florida final, sophomores Kristy Jaeckel (Littleton, Colo.) and Kelly Murphy (Wilmington, Ill.) captured third Southeastern Conference Coaches Beach Challenge Gold Division individual championship Saturday at the second-annual Fiesta on Siesta Key, played in Siesta Key, Fla.
The individual crown powered Florida to a second-place overall team finish at the SEC Coaches Beach Challenge.
Jaeckel and Murphy clinched a berth in the finals with a 25-21 victory against LSU's Angela Bensend and Michelle Williams in the semifinals. Juniors Lauren Bledsoe (Long Beach, Calif.) and Callie Rivers (Winter Park, Fla.) earned their way into the finals with a 25-18 win against Alabama's Callie Johnson and Kayla Schmidt.
Bledsoe and Rivers staked themselves to a late 23-18 advantage before a strong service run of Jaeckel allowed her duo to knot the score at 23-all. Following two more ties, Jaeckel and Murphy clinched a 27-25 comeback victory in the event finals.
The Fiesta on Siesta Key marked the final event for the Gators in the 2010 spring season.
Sand volleyball was originally introduced to the collegiate scene by CBS College Sports with the Collegiate Nationals, an event founded by the Network in the spring of 2006. That event is now in its fifth season. The coaches of the Southeastern and Sunshine State Conferences followed with their sand tournaments in the spring of 2008. The popularity of those events, along with others that sprang up around the country, helped lead the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics to recommend in the summer of 2008 that sand volleyball be added to the NCAA's list of Emerging Sports for Women.
At the 2010 NCAA Convention in Atlanta, an override attempt was defeated and the date of the proposal for sand volleyball becomes effective in August 2011.
For all of the latest information on Florida Volleyball, please log on to www.GatorZone.com/volleyball. Follow the Gators on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GatorZoneVB and Coach Mary Wise on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GatorMary.
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