Collegiate Beach Bash: Meet the UNCW Seahawks

Get to know the UNC Wilmington beach volleyball team, one of six programs that will be competing in the Collegiate Beach Bash on November 12, 2016, at the LakePoint Sporting Community in Emerson, Georgia.

Nov 6, 2016 by Megan Kaplon

Collegiate Beach Bash: Meet the UNCW Seahawks

The Collegiate Beach Bash is a fall exhibition college beach volleyball tournament hosted by RallyVB in Emerson, Georgia, and featuring six East Coast NCAA teams.

FloVolleyball will be live streaming all the action from the LakePoint Sporting Community, beginning at 9 AM ET on Saturday, November 12.

Each day leading up to the first serve at LakePoint, we'll profile one of the teams that will participate in the Collegiate Beach Bash.

First up, UNC Wilmington.

UNCW became the first school in North Carolina to field an NCAA beach volleyball team when it added the sport in July 2015. At that same time, UNCW hired David Fischer, who previously served as head beach coach at Louisiana Monroe, to join the Seahawks as an assistant for the indoor and beach volleyball teams.

A Stanford graduate, Fischer played outside hitter in college before trying his hand on the professional beach volleyball circuit. Fischer traveled from tournament to tournament on the AVP and Jose Cuervo tours in a 1983 Airstream RV and boasts five ninth-place finishes.

Listen to the upcoming episode of the FloVolleyball podcast "Talk Volley to Me" on Thursday, November 10, 2016, to hear our interview with Coach Fischer.

In 2016, the Seahawks' first season of beach volleyball competition, they went 10-15 and played some of the top teams in the country, including Pepperdine, Georgia State, and Florida State.

UNCW competed as an independent program in 2016, but it has since joined the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association. The CCSA formed in 2008 as the Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association, and last year changed its name and added beach volleyball. UNCW joins Georgia State, Tulane, FIU, FAU, UAB, Florida State, LSU, and College of Charleston in the conference, which will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA beach volleyball tournament in 2018.

The Pairs

1. Tanna Aljoe and Raquel Rooney

Tanna Aljoe joined the UNCW beach squad after graduating from North Carolina State where she was a setter and defensive specialist. The 5-foot-9 native of Grapevine, Texas, will compete at the No. 1 spot with freshman Raquel Rooney. A 5-8 lefty, Rooney is one of four freshmen on the beach-only roster at UNCW and one of four North Carolina natives.

2. Emily Corrigan and Kristy Mundy

A graduate of Appalachian State, Emily Corrigan joins the Seahawks beach team after collecting 1,399 kills in her decorated indoor career. Corrigan will partner with freshman Kristy Mundy at the Collegiate Beach Bash. Mundy, a Huntersville, North Carolina, native, helped led her Hough High School team to a 45-9 record over her junior and senior seasons.

3. Anna Grauel and Courtney Mullinax

This pair of sophomores will team up and compete at the No. 3 spot for UNCW at the Collegiate Beach Bash. Both athletes did not play regularly at any of the top-five spots in 2016 but are looking to make a larger impact in their second seasons.

4. Hayley Caputo, Audrey Bunn and Alex Marstall

Three athletes will be sharing time at the No. 4 spot for UNCW. Freshman Hayley Caputo is the only Californian on the Seahawks' beach roster, while 5-11 freshman Audrey Bunn hails from Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. Sophomore Alex Marstall brings one year of NCAA beach competition to the table after being one of the six beach-only players on last year's inaugural roster.

UNCW Beach Roster

No.	Name	Yr.	Ht.	Hometown / High School/Club or Previous School
5	Raquel Rooney	Fr	5-8	Raleigh, NC/Athens Drive HS
10	Hayley Caputo	Fr	5-8	Manhattan Beach, CA/Mira Costa
11	Kristy Mundy	Fr	5-9	Huntersville, NC/Hough HS
12	Tanna Aljoe	Gr	5-9	Colleyville, TX/NC State
13	Emily Corrigan	Gr	5-10	Johns Creek, GA/App State
15	Anna Grauel	So	6-0	Montclair, VA/Forest Park HS
22	Courtney Mullinax	So	5-4	Wilmington, NC/Wilmington Christian
23	Alex Marstal	So	6-1	Chantilly, VA/Chantilly HS
24	Audrey Bunn	Fr	5-11	Kill Devil Hills, NC/First Flight HS