{"id":323579,"date":"2026-05-19T23:04:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T23:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/323579\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T23:04:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T23:04:12","slug":"exclusive-fresno-pacific-planning-to-serve-up-new-sport-with-beach-volleyball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/323579\/","title":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Fresno Pacific planning to serve up new sport with beach volleyball"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) &#8212; Fresno Pacific is planning to add a new sport to its Division-II athletics lineup.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The Sunbirds are bringing beach volleyball to the Valley, becoming the first four-year program of its kind in the Fresno area.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Action News got an exclusive look at a rendering of the new facility, which includes three beach courts and bleachers near the track and field complex.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"hsDdd NDJZt sJeUN IJwXl vBqtr KrDt itslR zFTjo hakZw HlUVI \" data-testid=\"prism-image\" draggable=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/19133189_FPU-Beach_Court-Rendering.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Fresno Pacific&#8217;s head volleyball coach, Kelsee Montagna, says this is a huge step for the university.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;We&#8217;ve had recruits reach out to us from the Valley the past two years asking, &#8216;Are you going to start beach? When is it in the works? &#8216; and, unfortunately, they&#8217;ve had to go off and play somewhere else,&#8221; coach Montagna said. &#8220;Now, we can finally say &#8216;Yes, in 2027, we have a place for you here.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Fresno Pacific is working to raise $300,000 ahead of its planned inaugural season in 2027.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">For sports updates, follow Sydney Berger on <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SydneyABC30\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a>, <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SydneyPBerger\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">X<\/a> and <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/SydneyBergerTV\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 KFSN-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) &#8212; Fresno Pacific is planning to add a new sport to its Division-II athletics lineup.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[134754,112,114,113],"class_list":["post-323579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-134754","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}