The Egyptian women's beach volleyball team of Nada Meawad and Doaa Elghobashy took the court for their match against Germany on Sunday night wearing long sleeves and long pants.

Elghobashy also had her head covered by a hijab.

It was a stark contrast to the usual beach volleyball uniform — bikinis for women and boardshorts for men. Although the International Volleyball Federation used to have standards regulating the size of uniforms, those were loosened heading into the London Olympics to allow full sleeves and pants.

FIVB spokesman Richard Baker said Sunday night that the move was made to open up the game culturally.

By one measure, it's worked. Baker said there were 169 different countries involved in the Continental Cup qualifying process for the 2016 Olympic, compared to 143 for London.