Pac-12 beach volleyball leads nation with 11 AVCA All-Americans

SAN FRANCISCO - Eleven Pac-12 beach volleyball standouts earned All-America honors from the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) on Thursday, the most selections of any conference in the country.

No. 1 USC's Tina Graudina and Hailey Harward and No. 3 UCLA's Lexy Denaburg and Abby Van Winkle were four of the 16 selections on the All-American first team. The Trojans' Megan Kraft and Sammy Slater, No. 8 Stanford's Charlie Ekstrom, Xolani Hodel and Kate Reilly, and No. 12 California's Ana Costa and Mima Mirkovic landed on the 16-person second team.

The Pac-12's 11 All-America honorees in 2022 are five more than any other league (WCC - 6). Since the AVCA began its collegiate beach volleyball All-America awards in 2012, Pac-12 programs lead the nation with 59 total selections, including first-team, second-team and honorable mention All-Americans (USC 28, UCLA 18, Stanford 5, Arizona 4, California 4). The WCC is second among conferences with 39 total All-Americans all-time.

The recipients of the 2022 Pair of the Year, Coach of the Year, and Assistant Coach of the Year awards will be announced next week in conjunction with the NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship in Gulf Shores, Ala. USC (3) and UCLA (2) have combined to win every NCAA title in beach since the first championship tournament in 2016.