Cocoa Beach created history, Sunday, by hosting Ron Jon Collegiate Sand Volleyball Championship for the first time at Shepard Park beach, wherein women's college and university teams from across Florida came to participate.

The championship marks the start of the women's collegiate sand volleyball season, hosted and sponsored by the University of Central Florida (UCF).

Six teams from Stetson, Georgia State, Jacksonville, Louisiana-Monroe, Webber and North Florida took part in the event, Sunday, which are a part of the 30 current varsity programs in the country.

"Actually I was going to play indoor, and then at the last minute I heard beach (volleyball) was starting, NCAA's new sport and it ended up working perfectly for me," Julie Basset, a Stetson University sand volleyball player, told CFNews13.

Cocoa Beach City Manager Bob Majka told the newspaper that they are in talks with the community manager whether Cocoa Beach can become a destination on the East Coast for sand court volleyball tournaments, training, or for practice sessions.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) wants to have 45 full-time collegiate sand volleyball programs by the 2014 season. This sport was added to NCAA's emerging sports list for women, last year.

For a sport to make a transition from an emerging list into a full NCAA sponsorship, it should at least have a minimum of 40 teams.

Once the number of baseball varsity teams achieves the 40-school mark, the NCAA will start making plans to transition sand volleyball to championship sport status. After which the sport will undergo a name change, which is internationally known as Beach Volleyball.

UCF assistant volleyball coach, Nicki Holmes, said to the newspaper that if the NCAA has a championship in the next two to three years, Cocoa Beach can be considered as a venue.

Around 15 Division I colleges participated in the inaugural 2012 collegiate NCAA sand volleyball national championship last year and 15 more, including Stanford, have added this sport for the 2013 season.

The Stanford Cardinal women's sand volley ball team, which is its 36th varsity sports team, will be coached by John Dunning, who is also the head coach of the indoor team.

The cardinal sand volleyball team will begin its inaugural season, April 2, when it faces Santa Clara in its first of eight games this season.