About this time last year I got exciting confirmation that I was going to be volunteering in the Olympic News Service at the 2012 London Olympics. Cryptically, I was due to work as a Flash Quote Reporter at the BV competition–it took me a while to figure out that meant Beach Volleyball and even longer to discover that my enviable role meant I would be one of the first people to chat with the athletes as they left the court post game. Many other volunteers never even got close to seeing the inside of any of the venues.

I’ll admit, though, that there was an initial hit of disappointment and some teasing by my friends: “Yeah, sure they just randomly assigned you to the sport with the most skimpily dressed athletes.” But most of all I was a little daunted. Twelve months ago I knew nothing, absolutely nothing, about beach volleyball. I didn’t even know who Kerri Walsh Jennings ‘00 was.

Turn the clock forward a full year, and things have gone full circle. Later today, Stanford will host its inaugural game in its newest varsity sport; at 3:30 p.m. the women’s volleyball team will switch from indoor to beach and face Santa Clara in the opener of the NCAA Sand–aka Beach–Volleyball 2013 season.

In case you say don’t care, or you have the standard prejudice that beach volleyball is more about the party than the play, you’re wrong. It is a bona fide sport in spite of the beer and bikinis. If you get the chance and can find it on the TV or Internet somewhere, you should watch a replay of last year’s Olympic men’s final, perhaps one of the best contests I’ve seen in any sport. I’m a little bit biased–not only was I there and I got to interview the players after the match, I also went and played on the court late after the event was over and the dust had settled–but seriously, watch it.

I’m guessing that the women’s final got better coverage over here; it featured two American teams, one of which was the force of nature pairing of Misty May-Treanor and Walsh Jennings. There were so many members of the American press waiting to interview the players after the game that the floor partially collapsed. As great as it was to see them win their third-straight Olympic gold, though, they clearly outclassed Jennifer Kessy and April Ross. It really wasn’t that close.

The men’s final, however, had everything. A No. 3 German team, Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann, from a continent that had never won Olympic gold in the event squaring up against the No. 1 Brazilian team of Alison Cerutti and the legendary Emanuel Rego. There were thrills, spills, missed calls and impossible digs. It was only right that the teams would split the first two sets and treat us to a tiebreak, though perhaps unfair that one of these pairs had to walk away with just silver; Emanuel was heartbroken yet magnanimous in defeat in the post match media conference.

If you can watch that contest from start to finish and not become beach volleyball’s newest devotee, you must have a heart of stone.

Time has flown by since I walked out of that deserted beach volleyball stadium sometime in the early hours of a morning way back in August. The venue is long gone and it will be weird to visit Horse Guards Parade the next time I make it home. I haven’t watched a single minute of beach volleyball since–writing and editing for The Daily, and working on a PhD in my spare time, are not exactly conducive to having time to sleep, let alone anything else–but thankfully that streak stops today.

It was at the Olympics when I first heard that the NCAA was putting its support behind sand volleyball, but that was long before it was confirmed that Stanford would do the same.

My expectations might have been built up slightly by watching Olympic-level beach volleyball and there are surely going to be some growing pains with this new sport. Even Walsh Jennings admitted that her first year switching to sand was a humbling experience, so the learning curve may be pretty steep for the indoor players. It also puts greater demand on the athletics budget and space on the sand courts may be harder to get hold of, but trust me on this, it’ll be more than worth it.

Tom Taylor will be patrolling today’s match to keep out beer and bikinis. To help him with his constant vigilance, email him at tom.taylor “at” stanford.edu and follow him on Twitter @DailyTomTaylor.