Former Cal Poly indoor volleyball and beach volleyball standout Torrey Van Winden has been named to the 2020 U.S. Collegiate Beach National Team. The announcement was made public Wednesday by USA Volleyball.
Van Winden is one of 29 women who were named to the team. A total of 21 colleges and universities are represented by the players who were chosen. Players were nominated to the team by their coaches and selected based on their collegiate rankings.
On May 11, It was announced that Van Winden would be transferring to Florida State to pursue her master’s degree and play for the Seminole beach team in 2020-2021.
On the beach side at Cal Poly, Van Widen finished with a career record of 26-14 while playing from either the No. 1 or No. 2 spot in the lineup. In 2018, she teamed with Tia Miric at the No. 1 spot and finished 19-8 as the two became Cal Poly’s first AVCA Beach All-Americans. That summer, she paired with Emily Sonny to win a bronze medal at the Collegiate Beach Pairs Championship, a gold medal at the Porec Open in Croatia, and a bronze medal at the World University Games in Munich.
In 2018, she played the first four matches of the season before missing the rest of the season due to injury. Leading up to the cancellation of the rest of the spring season in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she was 5-4 with Macy Gordon.
Also a star for the Mustang indoor volleyball team, she helped lead them to two Big West Championships and make the NCAA Tournament all three years she was on the team. Individually, she was named the Big West Player of the Year in 2018, a First Team All-Big West honoree twice, and was named an AVCA Honorable Mention All-American. She also ranks second all-time in program history in career kills per set at 4.77.
Training plans for the collegiate national team are on hold at the moment while the country deals with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The head coach for the women’s team is 1996 Olympian and longtime beach volleyball high performance coach Barbra Fontana. She will be assisted by Hector Gutierrez, head coach of Texas Christian beach volleyball and Russell Brock, head coach of Louisiana State beach volleyball.
-Cal Poly Athletics
