Palm Beach State wins third straight beach volleyball national championship

Palm Beach State Lady Panthers, beach volleyball national champions. [Photo by Palm Beach State College]

The Palm Beach State Panthers won their third consecutive National Junior College Athletic Association women’s beach volleyball national championship May 3 by sweeping the State College of Florida 3-0 in Huntsville, Alabama.

No. 1 seed Palm Beach State stormed through the national tournament without losing a single set. The squad was the most dominant in school history, finishing the season with a record 27 dual match wins.

The Panthers started the postseason with three consecutive victories to claim their third consecutive Florida College System Activities Association Region 8 Championship. At the national tournament, Palm Beach State finished 6-0 in duals, winning all 24 matches without dropping a single set across 68 played.

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Jasmine Rayner and Sophia Soderberg earned top honors as the Pair of the Tournament, while head coach Drew Colvin was named National Coach of the Year.

“Winning one national championship is hard enough, but winning three in a row is a feat that sets the standard for NJCAA beach volleyball,” Athletic Director John Scarpino says. “This puts our beach volleyball program in elite status in the NJCAA that other programs aspire to reach.”

After graduating this month, standout Panthers Isabel Schattauer and Salome Galvez are heading to NCAA Division I.

Schattauer, who began competing internationally for her native Germany last year, and Galvez, a Medellín, Colombia, native who has played for the Colombian national team, have signed to play for Tarleton State in Stephenville, Texas.

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The entire team made a mark beyond the NJCAA. The Panthers went undefeated in NAIA and CCCAA interleague matchups, and all of their six losses came against NCAA programs, including new national champions TCU and the champs the past four years, USC, which finished No. 5 this year.

Palm Beach State also lost to No. 19 Florida Gulf Coast, nationally ranked Florida International, Palm Beach Atlantic, which finished third in NCAA Division II, and Florida Southern, which the Panthers defeated 3-2 in a rematch April 5.