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Texas Beach Volleyball!

TrashMaster G

By TrashMaster G
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JesusSweatDuck
JesusSweatDuck

Another one - Previously a Sophomore at ASU

BadgerHorn
BadgerHorn

Alright, I have thoughts.  Just got back from the Long Beach tournament.  CSB - After the win vs Nebraska, I ran into Coach Metzger.  I'm one of those people who assumes famous/public figure type

shadow_operative2.0
shadow_operative2.0

Boom, officially official.   

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BadgerHorn

BadgerHorn 147

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My takeaways from the TCU invitational:

CSB Part II: Coach Metzger recognized me from the Long Beach tournament and stopped by to chat.  He seems excited about the building process and establishing a solid foundation for the program.  Talked a little about the mixing/matching of the duos and the winds on Sat.  Again, it impressed me that he took a few mins to talk to someone who he doesn't really have anything to gain from, other than fan support and enjoying talking vball.  

I'm re-reading my post from LBSU on 3/17. I'll add any noteworthy changes or continuations of those observations as well as new observations

  • In my 3/17 post, I commented on our youth.  You can still tell we're young and the late start to the season has us at a disadvantage.  While it seems like we did clean the miscommunications up a bit since March, they are still there.  Switching partners will contribute to the persistence.  I think our playing up and down to competition is another sign of immaturity.  How do we lose to HCU and, the next day, beat them and nearly beat a top 5 team on their home court?  Also a sign that we don't have a winning culture in place yet.
  • The wily craftiness and mentoring that comes from a few beach upperclassmen would be awesome for this team.  Most of the teams we play against have a handful and I can't wait until we have a few of those.  We'll just have to grow it.  I hope the indoor upperclassmen (Devin, Jenna, Riley, Emma, etc) are able to mentor the beach girls a bit, but a) I know that it's a challenge to bridge that beach/indoor gap and b) mentoring when you're not a full timer is going to be a challenge due to face time and perception from the full timers
  • I noticed the 1s and 2s starting to mix in more angle and show blocking... the execution on those calls were often underwhelming.  I noticed the lower teams continue to just call line blocks and pat their hip during the rally.  That's probably fine, but there are some players who look for that and can use the hip/butt pat against you.
  • In my 3/17 post, I said "I don't see a clear #1 on this team".  What I meant was "a #1 on the level of the 1s from a top 5 team" because that's where I expect us to be in ~2 yrs.  After watching the 1s more this past weekend, I think Hashman has the potential to be that next year.  Maybe Butler in 1.5-2 yrs.  I struggle to get a good feel for Robertson's future upside.  She doesn't look out of place on Court 1 - just wondering what her ceiling is.
  • What happened to McCloskey?  I really liked what I saw from her at LBSU.  I did notice something and didn't want to pry with those in attendance. Don't want to mention it here unless something was publicized already.
  • Butler looks very promising going forward.  Lots of individual talent and seemed to mesh well with Devin's game where other littles seemed to struggle - indicates to me that she has a good ability to adapt.  Devin has good potential if she would consistently hammer the hammer-able balls and smother on the block.  She will have flashes and then be passive for a few points.  Her serving, serve receive, and bump setting are not major deficiencies from what I saw.  She struggles when pulling or if she ends up in the back row after a scramble, which isn't a surprise.
  • I can kind of see why Ava was playing on Ct 1 and 2 early in the year - her ball control and digging are pretty good, but she's going to have to hit the weights and add some power to maximize her side out and blocking game
  • Wright had some struggles with serve receive and some unforced errors.  Disappointing because she's really fun to watch when attacking and serving.
  • I didn't watch the 5s, 6s, or indoor girls much.  Without deep diving the scores, I noticed a trend where the indoor girls get a lead or win a set and then really tail off.  Wonder if it was due to conditioning, getting figured out by opponents, small sample size, ... or me imagining things.
  • I was impressed with everyone's management of the wind on Saturday

Trivial Hot Takes

  • Jersey talk not going away... I still don't like the orange tops with the big white stripe in the back.  The reverse/away version with the white front is a little better.  I noticed TCU had a similar design that looked better.  The purple/white may just be a better color combo for that design than orange/white.
  • I don't like our monochrome orange warmups.  They look like an orange offering from the George Costanza velvet line
  • We need to get some sweet Texas Beach Volleyball apparel at the Co-Op or wherever.  I'm not wearing cotton shirts to play beach vball
  • The scorekeeper had a horns down t-shirt on...  As a Wisconsin alum/fan as well, I just can't wrap my head around spending so much of my energy and identity on a Michigan, Ohio State, etc.
  • Volleyball fans/parents can be really annoying.  The constant yelling of "side out" or whatever other fan clichés needs to end.  There was a TCU fan near me whose encouragement consisted of mentioning "the lead" in 70% of his offerings... that's not an exaggeration.  "Get the lead", "nice lead", "keep the lead ladies", "this is a huge lead", "retake the lead"...

A couple of TCU fans made some polite jabs about enjoying beating Texas.  I played along a bit and gently hinted to them that 1) a team of freshmen, sophomores, and indoor girls playing partial seasons almost beat their #5 ranked team at home and 2) we're building a beach volleyball Death Star (or are we going with Starkiller now?) in Austin, so have fun now.

I see a lot of parallels to the 2022 Football team: going through growing pains, developing key players, stocking the roster with top end talent and key depth, a new coach establishing a winning culture.  When will this giant's alarm clock start ringing?

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BadgerHorn

BadgerHorn 147

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2 minutes ago, shadow_operative2.0 said:

Were you in the group with the dude with the big arm brace? 

Didn't notice a big arm brace.  I was walking around - mainly splitting time between courts 1 and 2.

 

4 minutes ago, shadow_operative2.0 said:

Ava is crazy little, maybe 100 lbs.

Yep - I'd imagine she'll need to put some armor on (borrowing a term from the OnTexas guys) with the nutrition and strength/conditioning folks to be ready for a full schedule next season.

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BadgerHorn

BadgerHorn 147

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1 minute ago, shadow_operative2.0 said:

Kinda weird Stein never moved off Court 3 until 1 was the only one left playing. He let MadSand dude do mosst of the in-match coaching. 

I don't know the team dynamics well enough to know if that is based on their identification of the lynchpin / must-win matches, which coaches have the best bead on certain players/teams, etc.  At LBSU, I recall the coaches moving around more between duals and even across matches within a dual.

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gsoda3

gsoda3 3187

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Were you in the group with the dude with the big arm brace? 
 
Ava is crazy little, maybe 100 lbs. 
You think? She's 5'10", 5'11"? I'd put her more at 120. I do think she'll put on more weight. Fwiw I noticed Stein putting a lot of time in with her.
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Js1

Js1 82369

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1 hour ago, shadow_operative2.0 said:

Molly towering over the celebration. 

Women’s volleyball (Texas), men’s volleyball (UCLA), beach (USC) all had repeat champs

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SL Xpress

SL Xpress 7491

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On 4/9/2024 at 2:28 AM, gsoda3 said:

Didn't know her dad played for us. I don't recognize his name.

I'm a little late to the discussion, but James Patton was a defensive tackle for us for one of the unsung best defensive units in Texas football history. The defensive line in particular was fearsome. Patton and Tommy Jeter were the defensive tackles, and Shane Dronett and Bo Robinson were the defensive ends. Teams had such a difficult time moving the ball against that defense, but the offense was beyond putrid. Ended up with a losing season at 5-6 and McWilliams was fired at the end of the year. 

Patton was an awesome defensive tackle. He didn't play much in the NFL. Picked 55th overall. He had a hip injury that never really fully healed. 

As far as names for our Beach Volleyball complex, is we're thinking along the lines of Deathstar or Starkiller, I vote for calling it the Thanos Snap. 

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Js1

Js1 82369

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Read that Molly will be petitioning for another season of beach (6th year of eligbility)

She definitely needs to be a 4peat champ (2x indoor, 2x beach) over 4 consecutive seasons

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shadow_operative2.0

shadow_operative2.0 15669

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For @Texas Wahoo & @JesusSweatDuck. 

Quote

Texas Beach Volleyball is set to join the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association (CCSA) in 2025, the league office announced Friday. The Longhorns are set to compete in their first CCSA Championship when the 2025 event takes place in April in Huntsville, Ala., at the John Hunt Sand Volleyball Complex. The 2025 National Championship will take place May 2-4 at Huntington Beach Pier in California for the first time.

Texas joins current league members Florida State, LSU and South Carolina competing in the league in 2025.

https://texaslonghorns.com/news/2024/7/19/beach-volleyball-joins-coastal-collegiate-sports-association-ccsa.aspx

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