Until recently, it wasn't unusual for college volleyball players to split their time between the court and the beach.

NCAA beach volleyball has only recently emerged as a popular and solvent college sport. For a long time, programs had neither the resources nor the roster sizes to recruit exclusively for the beach. Instead, they did exactly the thing one might expect; they looked towards the indoor programs, creating a generation of athletes who competed both indoors and outdoors.

And for a long time, the indoor programs didn’t mind this either. The two sports are played in opposite seasons; for volleyball coaches, the knowledge that their athletes were playing the sport at a competitive level year round was more important than dwelling on the fact that they weren’t playing in their precise discipline.

But today, the model of sharing athletes across the hardwood and the beach is becoming rarer and rarer. In recent years, beach volleyball has matured from a niche sport to a respected discipline with its own recruiting processes and scholarship opportunities. The same can be said for the indoor game, though it happened earlier; the beach version has only recently caught up.

The sports have grown into individual and solvent versions of themselves; it’s only natural that the players would self-select at an earlier age, too. The result is more specialized and prepared athletes for each discipline. One side effect, though, is the loss of the unique players who transition or play both.

No athlete better represents the earlier era of dual-sport volleyball than UCLA’s Mac May. She competed simultaneously for UCLA’s indoor and beach volleyball teams between 2017 and 2021 and became one of the most decorated athletes in the school’s history. On the court, she was a two-time Pac-12 player of the year, and on the beach, she helped the Bruins win two NCAA championships. At that time - only a few years ago - it was more common to be a crossover athlete. May proved just how successful one of those could be.

Today’s examples of dual sport athletes are fewer, and they look a little different. Take Molly Phillips, for example. She spent five seasons in Texas helping the Longhorns elevate themselves to one of the country’s best indoor programs (they won back-to-back NCAA championships in 2022 and 2023). Instead of finishing her indoor career, Phillips transferred to USC for her final year of eligibility and switched to beach volleyball.

She posted an 8-0 record. Undefeated.

Phillips’ journey reflects the newer trend: athletes are using their extra year of eligibility to explore the other sport after they accomplish their first career, instead of trying to play both simultaneously.

Another similar story is that of Taryn Kloth. After starring for the indoor team at Creighton, Kloth transferred to LSU to play on the beach, despite having little experience. She was paired with Kristen Nuss and the two of them quickly became some of the country’s best beach players, even helping the Tigers win the NCAA championships before reaching the Olympic stage.

While Phillips and Kloth found another life in beach volleyball after their successful indoor careers, athletes like Delaynie Maple demonstrate another type of emerging trend: choosing beach volleyball from the outset.

The path from indoor to beach volleyball is much more common - and for good reason. Indoor volleyball provides athletes with strong technical foundations specific to their role; everyone learns how to serve, pass, attack, block, or play defense and offense. Beach volleyball then asks you to take everything you learned and do it simultaneously - there are only two athletes on the sand, after all. It’s much more appealing to learn how to do one thing before you learn how to do everything.

Additionally, beach volleyball has its own unique demands. Players have to account for weather and wind and learn how to move in the sand. And, as previously mentioned, with only two players on the sand, everyone does everything.

Of course, popularity also plays a role here. There are significantly more opportunities for young athletes to play indoors than outdoors, and the professional indoor game has grown at a rate that the beach game has not. Therefore, for many athletes, beach volleyball becomes an additional opportunity, not an initial destination.

To move from beach to indoor is a totally different challenge. Height matters more indoors - especially at the DI level. The indoor game is also faster and, as previously mentioned, more specialized. And because the indoor game is stronger at a youth level, it has stronger recruitment pipelines. Beach players willing to transition indoors may not be the most appealing candidates, due to the lack of early specialization.

But in some places, crossover does still exist. Nebraska is the best-known example. The Cornhuskers intentionally created their beach program as a developmental extension of their indoor team, with star players like Harper Murray, Rebekah Allick, Bergen Reilly, Andi Jackson, Merritt Beason and Lindsay Krause all spending time on the sand during their collegiate careers.

Florida State has also produced notable dual-sport athletes over the years, like Taryn Knuth, Gabriela O'Sullivan, Payton Caffrey and Madi Davis. Tulane has frequently relied on indoor players during beach season, with Mackenzie Martin, Olivia Aschenbrenner and Katherine Terrell among those making the crossover.

Additionally, several mid-major programs have historically relied on crossover athletes as well. Georgia State, Mercer, Louisiana-Monroe, Coastal Carolina and UNC Wilmington have all used indoor players to help build their beach programs, particularly during the programs’ early years of growth. As beach recruiting has become more specialized, however, many of those programs have shifted toward recruiting more beach-trained athletes while still occasionally including players who compete in both sports.

Ultimately, the true dual-sport volleyball player has become increasingly uncommon. During the early growth of NCAA beach volleyball, crossover athletes played a significant role in helping new beach programs field competitive teams. But today, beach volleyball has matured into a fully established NCAA sport with its own recruiting pipelines, scholarship opportunities and development pathways. Therefore, athletes are increasingly choosing one discipline earlier in their careers.

Athletes like Mac May represent an era when competing in both sports was both possible and common. Players like Molly Phillips represent the modern version of that journey - one where beach volleyball increasingly serves as the next chapter after a successful indoor career.

The dual-sport athlete hasn't disappeared altogether. But as indoor and beach volleyball continue to evolve into increasingly specialized disciplines, the players who successfully navigate both worlds may become rarer, and all the more remarkable because of it.