The box score from Southern California's 3-2 victory over UCLA in the 2023 beach volleyball National Championship. Each pairs match is won by the team that wins two sets. Each set is played first to 21 points (instead of 25 for indoor), and a team must win by at least two points.

Beach volleyball is a best-of-three set contest unlike indoor volleyball where matches can go on till five sets. The first two sets are played until one team reaches 21 points - as opposed to 25 in the indoor version for its first four sets - and the third and final deciding set, if required, is played to 15 points.

Beach volleyball most likely originated in 1915 on Waikiki Beach in Hawaii, while the modern two-player game originated in Santa Monica, California, where the first volleyball courts were put up on the beach. It has been an Olympic sport since the 1996 Summer Olympics.