LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 11, 2022) – The Spring Hill College (SHC) Sandy Badgers beach volleyball team will be the NCAA Division II classification's 4^th seed at the 2022 American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Small College Championships held at Hickory Point Beach in Tavares, Fla. on Thursday-Sunday, April 14-17.
 
The Badgers (19-7) begin Pool Play as the top seed in Pool D where they will open the tournament versus the pool's 3^rd-seeded Erskine College Fleet (9-9) on Thursday at 9 a.m. (eastern). The match will mark the first meeting of the two programs.
 
Next, SHC will face the pool's 4^th-seeded Tritons of Eckerd College (1-13) at 4 p.m. (eastern) on Thursday. The Badgers and the Tritons have met just three times and not since 2018 when Eckerd took a 4-1 victory in the opening round of Pool Play at the AVCA Small College Championships. The Tritons hold a 2-1 edge in the series.
 
Pool Play will conclude on Friday at 2 p.m. (eastern) versus an old Badger foe in the overall 5^th-seeded and pool's 2^nd-seeded Texas A&M – Kingsville (TAMK) Javalinas (15-10). Spring Hill holds a 5-2 advantage in the historic series that has seen four matches go down to the final set. The two sides have met twice in the AVCA Championships with TAMK winning 3-2 in the 2018 semifinal round and SHC winning 3-2 in the opening round of Bracket Play in 2021. On April 1 of this season, SHC squeaked out a 3-2 victory in Hattiesburg, Miss. decided only by a 17-15 tie-breaking set on Court 1.

The Badgers will play a "Challenge Match" versus an opponent to be determined on Friday evening and begin bracket play on Saturday with each team guaranteed to play a minimum of two Saturday matches.

The Badgers will also enter two pairs in the Pairs Competition to be held in conjunction with the Team Championships.