Nina Matthies: Beach volleyball's ultimate champion and ambassador

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features Nina Matthies, a legendary player and coach and one of the all-time great people in the sport of beach volleyball.

As a player, Matthies won a record SEVEN Manhattan Beach Opens, but her legacy is so much more than that of a player. She was instrumental in forming the WPVA, bringing the women's game to get the same respect as the men. She built the Pepperdine indoor program into a bona fide power, and she helped beach volleyball become established as an NCAA sport.

She is an incredible human being, and her fingerprints are all over the sport of beach volleyball.

In this episode, we discuss:

- Nina Matthies' childhood in Manhattan Beach, and how beach volleyball was really the only option she had to play a sport as a kid

- How she helped form the WPVA, and how Leonard Armato actually approached her before the men to form the AVP

- A wild trip to Brazil for the inaugural professional beach volleyball event there in 1986

- How she balanced coaching at Pepperdine, being a mom, while also being the best female player in the world

- The indelible formation of beach volleyball as an NCAA sport

Thanks, as always, for listening to SANDCAST, which recently topped the charts for the most listened-to volleyball podcast in six countries! Your support means the world, and we hope you had the MERRIEST OF CHRISTMASES and happiest of New Years! So long, 2020!

If you're looking for last-minute Christmas ideas, we know the perfect gifts for the beach volleyball fans in your family. Check out Wilson volleyball, and use our discount code, Sandcast-20, to get 20 PERCENT OFF!

And, if you're looking for a legit backpack, our guys at Kamena Outdoor make the absolute best backpacks on the beach, with more than 17 years of tweaking and modifying to make it the perfect, long-lasting backpack you need. Use our discount code DIGME to get another 20 PERCENT OFF!

Thanks, as always, to you, the listeners. Y'all are the real MVPs.

SHOOTS!