By Susan Wong
TEMPE – Since the team’s 2014 inception, Arizona State’s sand volleyball team has played its matches at the Pera Club, a country club-style facility near the Crosscut Canal that is owned by Salt River Project.
This year the team has a home of its own.
ASU’s new sand volleyball facility opened Feb. 2 and is located near Farrington Softball Stadium, east of Rural Road and south of Rio Salado Parkway, on the school’s Tempe campus. The team will compete in its first match on Friday at Grand Canyon University’s Canyon Classic. It won’t play in its new Tempe home until March 8.
Construction on the project started in October “and we’re already out here,” coach Brad Keenan said.
While it was a quick turnaround, Ken Landphere, a senior associate athletics director at ASU, said much more went into building sand courts than meets the eye. Or bare feet.
The sand used for the ASU courts is a replication of the fine sand found on California beaches. It’s typically smaller in granulation and doesn’t have any lye or powder in it, so it’s very clean, Landphere said.
He also acknowledged that the Sun Devils’ facility is unique in the way the courts have been spread out for safety and style of play.
“We were using this as a recruiting tool as it was being built,” Keenan said. “Now it’s going to be even greater when (athletes visit) on campus, so we can show them the courts and show them it’s for real.”
The courts will also be available for students to use for intramural competition.