COEUR d'ALENE - They call it Sand, Set and Spike - it's beach volleyball in the middle of a shopping center parking lot.

It started Wednesday with 27 dump-truck loads of ultra fine sand - weighing 1,056 tons altogether - being dropped on the parking lot of Ironwood Square Shopping Center.

Twelve-inch high wood walls are framed to keep the sand - imported from Mead, Wash. - from spreading out across the asphalt.

Two bulldozers push the sand around, and soon five beach volleyball courts take shape. Professional-grade nets are put in place.

"There wasn't an easy part about this," said Henry Scott Simkins, director of marketing for Qdoba Mexican Grill. Qdoba put the beach volleyball tournament on with help from North Idaho College.

By Saturday, 16 different four-on-four teams took to the courts. On Sunday, 32 two-on-two teams followed in temperatures in the mid 90s.

"Unfortunately, here in the Inland Northwest, there's not a lot of tournament play," said Kyle Twohig of Spokane, who competed Saturday and Sunday. "That's why this is such a great event. There are no locations in the Inland Northwest where there are more than one, maybe two courts."

Twohig, who travels to other tournaments, said players would have to travel to western Washington or the Oregon Coast for a similar tournament. He said it's great he doesn't have to drive five hours.

"And it's very well done here," Twohig said. "The sand is nice and soft. It's jumper sand, so it's probably good for a lot of people out here. You don't sink when you put your weight down like a lot of the deeper beaches."

He said playing in a shopping center parking lot is great.

"I love being able to run into Albertsons and grab a Red Bull or some water," he said. "Also, it just brings a lot of spectators around. The more spectators, the more fun it is."

Kayla Mainer of Spokane agrees.

"They made it an event," she said, something similar in feel to a Hoopfest-type environment. "The level of play is pretty good. It's pretty competitive."

Many players were from the Coeur d'Alene-Spokane area, ranging in age from 16 to 50. Others traveled from Montana, and one team made the trip to Coeur d'Alene from Colorado.

Simkins said, "We started this as a kind of marketing thing to drive some business. But then it became so much bigger because people were looking for an event like this."

A separate company has been established to run the tournament, and the plan is for it to occur annually.

"We're here to stay," Simkins said. "Now that we're on the map, and they see what we can do, we're going to get a lot more teams traveling in."

The tournament was planned in just two months, he said. It was the first one Qdoba has put on, but already ways to expand it are being considered.

"We're working out the details right now where we could have a qualifier for (the Corona beer) pro beach tournament," Simkins said.

That qualifier would take place about a week before Sand, Set and Spike tournament play.

Robert Renecker, general manager of Qdoba, said, "Everybody in the (shopping) complex has just been wowed. It looks like it will be wise for us to grow the tournament."

Many events occur downtown in Coeur d'Alene and businesses there benefit from the influx of traffic. In the same way, Qdoba wanted to draw some crowds to the shopping center, Renecker said.

Al Williams, athletic director at North Idaho College, said, "I think for the first year, it was awesome. Just to have this many teams, where you could actually fill the brackets well before the actual tournament play dates was phenomenal."

He said the courts look like professional-level beach volleyball pits.

He said many people came out to the tournament out of curiosity.

"People will wonder how you get this much sand out here," Williams said. It's interesting to see "how you can get five courts out here in the middle of the parking lot and it still not have it be a problem or an obstacle for the stores in the area."

He said it looks like they'll need more bleachers next year.

"The weather cooperated, the fans came out here at nine in the morning, and they're going to spend the whole day out here in a beach setting in the middle of a parking lot," Williams said. "I think what's going to happen next year is word of mouth is really going to carry this. And that's kind of how this whole circuit runs I've heard."

He said all the players he's talked are marking their calendars now for next year.

"It's only going to get better next year," Williams said.

Simkins, of Qdoba, said, "Monday morning the dump trucks and the bulldozers will be back and we'll pick it all up, have some street cleaners sweep it all up, and people won't even know we were all here."