SALT LAKE CITY — After nine seasons as part of University of Utah athletics, the school's beach volleyball program is being eliminated.
Tuesday's announcement comes days after the team fell in the semifinals of the Big 12 Tournament in a 3-1 loss to Arizona State. The Utes ended the season with 21 wins, making it the winningest season in Utah beach volleyball history.
Head coach Brenda Whicker, a member of the Utah Athletics Hall of Fame, announced her retirement immediately following the conference tournament loss.
"We were sitting down, joking around, like, what if they cut our program right now? And then [Utah Athletics Director] Mark Harlin walked in, and we were like, 'Oh my gosh, they're about to cut our program," said sophomore Londyn Giles.
"We were obviously not expecting anything like that at all, so it was just very upsetting when they came in, and it was just a very quick conversation that we were being cut and there was just not a lot of debate about it," added sophomore Milan Ray.
Beach volleyball became part of the Utes athletics program as a varsity sport in 2017 when the school was still a member of the Pac-12 Conference. Utah currently competes in the Big 12, where only three other schools participate in the sport.
"This was an extremely difficult decision, and we did not arrive at this conclusion without a significant and appropriate amount of thought, consideration and consultation," said Harlan.
Harlan added that with only 12 beach volleyball programs among the four power conferences, it does not appear that the sport is expanding, and that the school is "not providing the world-class experience that we seek to provide to our student-athletes."
Utah said it will work to support its current beach volleyball student-athletes, and if they choose to remain at the school, their scholarships will be honored. Scholarships provided to incoming student-athletes will also be honored.
"We all broke down because we're losing our family," shared Ray. "It's not even about Utah at this point, it's about all the girls that dreamed of coming to Utah and playing for this school."
Following the elimination of beach volleyball, the Utah athletics program will be comprised of 19 sports.
