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Texas Beach Volleyball!


TrashMaster G

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b. A dual in which two teams, represented by five pairs, play each other is an event in its
entirety. 

(1) Officially recognized as an NCAA Beach Volleyball match.
(2) An event in which each pairs match result counts toward points to determine the
result of the dual (a team win or a team loss). 

Had this discussion with a TCU regular the other day. It's officially dual with an 'a', but you'll see it misused all the time, including by our new kids at Texassports. 

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Texas Beach Volleyball came up just short of the program's first duel match win on Day 2 of the Heineken Queen's Cup at Queen's beach on Saturday. 

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Thanks for the updates.  I'm planning to be at the matches later this week.  Curious to see the team dynamic / morale considering this team is used to competing for and winning national championships and is now scraping to win games and may be uncompetitive in many matches this season. 

The coaches will need to manage the mental side / confidence.  A few wks ago, Coach Sullivan said something about setting proper expectations with the team.  I suspect he knew they'd struggle in many matches this first season and wanted to get in front of it and prep them for the learning/growth experience.

Also, going forward the coaches will need to:

1) figure out, in coordination with the players, who's going to play indoor/outdoor only or both

and

2) for those playing both ways, ensure beach techniques/tendencies/instincts that don't work indoor don't bleed over to that side and vice versa

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13 hours ago, BadgerHorn said:

Thanks for the updates.  I'm planning to be at the matches later this week.  Curious to see the team dynamic / morale considering this team is used to competing for and winning national championships and is now scraping to win games and may be uncompetitive in many matches this season. 

The coaches will need to manage the mental side / confidence.  A few wks ago, Coach Sullivan said something about setting proper expectations with the team.  I suspect he knew they'd struggle in many matches this first season and wanted to get in front of it and prep them for the learning/growth experience.

Also, going forward the coaches will need to:

1) figure out, in coordination with the players, who's going to play indoor/outdoor only or both

and

2) for those playing both ways, ensure beach techniques/tendencies/instincts that don't work indoor don't bleed over to that side and vice versa

I’m not concerned. These players have zero beach chemistry. They’re only playing until we start recruiting actual beach players. We are using indoor coaches for this year. The players should just be having fun and building chemistry with the freshman and Wenaas. Should be a good bonding trip to Hawaii

Believe I read Baby Spice has a stress fracture so she’s not playing beach 

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It's going about how I expected.  21-1 is really bad though.  Asia is an MB so it's not too surprising.  I bet she hasn't done serve receive in years and years until now.   Half of the plays she made in indoor are illegal in sand so the mental adjustment is tough, plus the reps of certain skills not being there.

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2 hours ago, JesusSweatDuck said:

It's going about how I expected.  21-1 is really bad though.  Asia is an MB so it's not too surprising.  I bet she hasn't done serve receive in years and years until now.   Half of the plays she made in indoor are illegal in sand so the mental adjustment is tough, plus the reps of certain skills not being there.

That right there may be why Elliot was so hesitant to bring in beach volleyball to the 40 acres. He probably had legitimate concerns that as certain indoor players improve their technique and skillset on the sand, it may hurt them when they flip back to indoors in the fall. Fortunately, beach has their own scholarships so I imagine Elliot will try to convince most of his indoor players to avoid beach for the most part, once they have a full roster. I’m just speculating    

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1 hour ago, perfectchaos007 said:

That right there may be why Elliot was so hesitant to bring in beach volleyball to the 40 acres. He probably had legitimate concerns that as certain indoor players improve their technique and skillset on the sand, it may hurt them when they flip back to indoors in the fall. Fortunately, beach has their own scholarships so I imagine Elliot will try to convince most of his indoor players to avoid beach for the most part, once they have a full roster. I’m just speculating    

I don't think it will be a big deal.  Most don't have girls that play both as far as I know.  I'd be surprised if they don't fill out an entire Sand team once they hire a coach.  I'm still curious who that will be.

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59 minutes ago, kingkoopa6 said:

I hope our ladies got they Chins up. 
 

We gettin pounded. 
 

from kicking everyone’s tail indoor to gettin dominated in the sand. Can’t be good for the mentals.

Gotta start somewhere.  Our rowing team used to be one of the worst in the nation. Now pulling down national championships. Gotta be patient, going to take a few years 

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On 3/15/2023 at 7:37 PM, kingkoopa6 said:

I hope our ladies got they Chins up. 
 

We gettin pounded. 
 

from kicking everyone’s tail indoor to gettin dominated in the sand. Can’t be good for the mentals.

Nebraska has been getting their teeth kicked in for years. Obviously last year wouldn’t be considered a sterling success, but outside of that they’ve been the most consistently successful program in the country since their indoor team started participating in beach. For their coach, John Cook, it’s worth the beat downs to be able to work on overall skills and to get the extra time practicing under coaching supervision. They have a truncated schedule (just like Texas) and then use the rest of the time available for the season working on indoor. 

My problem with it is if you’re going to field a team, I want my school to aspire to national championships, whereas Nebraska uses it more as a cheat code. 

I look forward to a permanent head coach being named and a roster full of beach only players brought on. I fully expect with the right person UT quickly vaults to elite status. There aren’t that many beach programs on the country, in all honesty. With UT’s resources and the talent in our backyard it shouldn’t take long to compete for national championships, IMO. 

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One thing we are good at. But I didn’t see any other team do.  Kills. 
 

maybe it’s not needed in the game. But madi mashed the ball many times. Opponents did not 

saw Devin and a ref go at it. Devin stated case, ref was like nah. And that was it.  I wanted to “ you suck ref” but it was Golf event quiet. 
 

 

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Coach E so smooth. He walks with commanding grace. 
 

other teams fans and girls were fan girling over our girls. 
 

im sure it was an honor to play against the best.  ( not Beach best tho haha )

after the games. I wanted to tell some of the oppts. “ let’s take this inside and see y’all get smoked”

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My observations:

- it's a lot of fun. Highly encourage you guys to come out and watch. If you have athletic daughters, it's a no brainer to bring them along

- Basically reiterating what we knew: the beach player is a different type of athlete. These teams are full of 5'5" - 6' girls with agility, ball skills, and everyone can either hit or they have craft with cuts, shooting, etc. You need blockers who aren't a liability on serve receive and setting; and defenders/littles who can hit down on the ball to side out. Indoor players aren't asked to do that.  Overheard the Utah coach talking to one of the LBSt coaches saying something along the lines of "we're in a similar boat to Texas just one year further - still mostly playing indoor volleyball outdoors but some younger beach players" and the response was "yeah, that's really tough"

- The top 3 teams are showing some positive flashes. You can tell Devin and Akana have some of the right beach instincts and are still working on the execution part. They may not have the physical tools some of their teammates do, but I can see why they're on Ct1

- Madi and Molly looked good and won their second match. I played beach several times against college indoor players and the key is getting them out of system. If you give them easy balls, they'll set up and just crush balls back at you.  That's what happened for M&M a few times - Madi received an easy ball and you could tell the point was over before she smoked one past the block. Molly and Jenna had a few hammers of their own. Too many unforced errors esp on serve.  I could see Madi being very good at beach... But you can probably say that for her about multiple sports

- Didn't see much of the 4-5 teams. Hoping to see more tmrw. 

- Seemed to be running relatively basic defensive schemes from what I noticed. Makes sense for a new team. I'll pay more attn to that tmrw. 

- Serious uniform talk: I'm not a big fan of the unis. The white front looks good but the wide burnt orange stripe on the back makes it look like an attempt at a dual use home/away jersey of some sort. Either go storm trooper or burnt orange

- Really happy to see the girls out there competing and laying the groundwork for what I think will be another UT team competing for championships in a couple of years 

 

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