On the eve of competition of the inaugural Southeastern Conference Coaches Beach Volleyball Championships, the players and coaches in attendance will celebrate the event with a banquet at the Best Western Gateway Grand. Three-time Olympic gold medalist Karch Kiraly has signed on to serve as the banquet’s keynote speaker.

A limited number of tickets for the event, which is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET on Friday, April 11, will be made available to the public. Individual tickets can be purchased for $40 apiece, and a $2 handling fee will be applied to all orders.

Complete tournament information, including a ticket order form, can be found at www.secbeachvolleyball.com.

The only player ever to win Olympic gold medals both indoors and on the sand, Kiraly retired from the AVP Tour in 2007 as the winningest player in beach volleyball history in terms of both tournaments and prize money. When he was inducted into the Volleyball Hall of Fame in 2001, Kiraly was dubbed the greatest men’s volleyball player in the sport’s first century. In addition to indoor gold medals at the 1984 Los Angeles Games and the 1988 Seoul Games, Kiraly captured the top prize on the Beach at the Atlanta Games in 1996 and won at least one beach tournament in 24 of his 27 seasons on the AVP Tour.

The SEC Coaches Beach Volleyball Championships will be the first beach tournament ever held by a Division I conference. There are seven beach tournaments involving NCAA institutions scheduled for the spring of 2008, with only the Division II Sunshine State Conference tournament to precede the action on the UF campus.

Each of the 11 volleyball teams in the SEC have signed on to compete at the event, which will be free and open to the public. Schools will send three teams of two to the tournament, each of whom will engage in pool play for a chance to move on to the medal round. The competition will use rules derived from the AVP Tour, with modifications made as needed for collegiate players.

Competition will begin on Saturday morning with pool play, during which each team will play a minimum of four matches. The top two teams in each pool will play in the pool championship phase of the tournament for a spot in the medal round. The bronze medal match is scheduled for 4 p.m. ET, and the gold medal match is slated to commence at 6 p.m. ET.

SEC Coaches Beach Volleyball Championships schedule of events (all times Eastern)

Friday, April 11

Afternoon practices at Southwest Recreation Center (free and open to the public)

7 p.m. – SEC Coaches Beach Volleyball Championships banquet (featured speaker: Karch Kiraly)

Saturday, April 12

8:30 a.m. – Pool play begins

4 p.m. – Bronze medal match

6 p.m. – Gold medal match

- UF -