Lindenwood Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Brad Wachler has formally announced the sponsorship of beach volleyball beginning in 2022-23. Following the addition of beach volleyball, Lindenwood will sponsor 29 NCAA athletic programs, adding to one of the nation's largest athletics departments.

"We are excited about the opportunity to add beach volleyball to our department," said Wachler. "We are confident that beach volleyball will be a natural fit here at Lindenwood and will achieve success in conjunction with our current women's volleyball program. Beach volleyball is one of the fastest growing sports in the NCAA at this time and we are excited to bring that growth to St. Charles."

Current Lindenwood women's volleyball assistant Alli Duckworth will serve as the program's first head coach. Duckworth will begin her fifth season as an assistant for the women's volleyball team in the fall. Duckworth helped guide Lindenwood to its first-ever GLVC Volleyball Championship Tournament appearance in the spring of 2021 after Lindenwood had its fall 2020 season postponed due to COVID-19.

"I am excited to officially get started," explained Duckworth. "We are looking forward to putting a team together and getting the opportunity to compete. Lindenwood will be unique in that it will have all three NCAA volleyball offerings and create an environment unlike anything in the Midwest region."

Beach volleyball competition at Lindenwood is set to commence in the spring of 2023. Currently there are 69 NCAA member institutions across the country that sponsor beach volleyball and are eligible to compete in the National Championship. Those 69 programs are comprised of NCAA Division I, II, and III institutions that all compete for the same title.

"I am excited that we are at the point where we can announce the addition of beach volleyball to our department," said women's volleyball head coach Will Condon. "Our primary goal when we started this process was to create more opportunities to play volleyball.  With the growth of the sport around the world and specifically in the St. Louis area, now is the perfect time to be adding beach.  While there is still a great deal of work to do and details to iron out, we look forward to this process and what it means for our current and future student-athletes."

With its inclusion of beach volleyball, Lindenwood will become the first member institution in the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) to sponsor the sport. Additionally, Lindenwood will be the first University in the Midwest region to compete in men's volleyball, women's volleyball, and beach volleyball at the NCAA level.