ATLANTA – Georgia State Director of Athletics Cheryl L. Levick announced two promotions within the volleyball program Wednesday as Tami Audia has been named Director of Volleyball and Beth Van Fleet has been elevated to head coach of the sand volleyball program.
The head court volleyball coach at Georgia State the past three years and head coach for GSU's inaugural sand volleyball season, Audia will continue to serve as head court volleyball coach and will still oversee all aspects of both the court and sand programs. Van Fleet, a former GSU court volleyball standout, will assume the day-to-day head coaching duties for sand volleyball beginning on July 1.
“It is a pleasure to promote Tami and Beth,” Levick said. “They are excellent coaches and will provide strong leadership to maximize the growth of sand and court volleyball at Georgia State.”
With the addition of sand volleyball as an emerging NCAA sport in 2013, schools could choose to have student-athletes compete in both court and sand, or keep the teams completely separate. Georgia State committed to providing more opportunities for young women by having separate teams and then played a full schedule in the spring. The duties of the sand program and the time involved with practice, travel and competitions often overlapped with the needs of the court program, which is heavily involved in recruiting in the spring.
“We are always evaluating what is best for our program and the overall experience for our student-athletes,” Audia said. “I felt we weren't getting everything done for court volleyball in the spring. It didn't allow the flexibility we need to have for recruiting, especially in cultivating key relationships. Overall, the volleyball program – both court and sand – will now be much better for the student-athletes.”
In its inaugural season, Georgia State won eight matches as a team, and saw its No. 1 pair advance to the semifinals of the AVCA national tournament. It was the farthest any Panther individual or team had advanced at a national championship event in school history.
Audia expressed great confidence in Van Fleet running the sand program based on her past coaching and playing credentials, even calling her a “guru” for sand volleyball. “She treated her job as if she was the head coach before even though she was an assistant,” Audia said.
Van Fleet will be one of four women to hold head coaching positions at Georgia State in 2013-14. After a standout career at GSU in court volleyball, she spent several years as a professional sand volleyball player on the AVP Tour before joining Audia in 2010 as a graduate assistant. Van Fleet recruited fulltime for sand volleyball starting in 2011.
“First, I want to thank Cheryl Levick and Tami Audia for giving me this opportunity for my first head coaching job,” Van Fleet said. “I'm beyond thrilled. It means a lot to me to know that Tami is confident in me and what we're going to be able to do with the volleyball program at Georgia State.”
Georgia State opens the court volleyball season on Aug. 30 at the Samford Tournament, which includes likely preseason top-10 foe Minnesota. The Panthers begin home action against UAB on Sept. 10, while the first home Sun Belt matchup will be against Western Kentucky on Oct. 2.
Sand volleyball plays in the spring semester, running from March to May.
