NCAA Beach Bytes: FAU lands historic upset, UCLA rolls on, Bauer-Anderson raising their game

It is not yet May. It is, in fact, barely Spring. The time has not yet come for the NCAA’s best beach volleyball teams to descend upon Gulf Shores, Alabama, for the NCAA Championships. But this past weekend, descend upon Gulf Shores many of them did, for the March to May, UAB’s annual spring tournament that is a primer for the main event in a few months’ time.

Nine teams made the trip to Gulf Shores last weekend, including No. 1 UCLA, No. 4 Florida State, No. 6 LSU, No. 7 Grand Canyon, No. 13 Florida Atlantic, No. 14 Georgia State, No. 15 South Carolina, and No. 19 Tulane. The only unranked team, per the CollegeBeachVB committee, was the host itself, UAB.

High was the potential for a landmark win. And with the NCAA expanding the field to 16 teams from the usual eight for the Championships come May, a resume-boosting victory could be the difference between watching the stream from the couch and having others watch you on that stream from their couch.

No team landed a bigger win than Florida Atlantic.

Before this weekend, FAU sat squarely on the bubble as to whether or not the Owls could be selected for an at-large bid to Gulf Shores. They’d had no bad losses — TCU, Florida State, and USC, all teams ranked in the top five — on the ledger but no real impressive wins, either. Worse yet, it was an uninspiring start to the weekend, dropping its first three matches to UCLA, South Carolina, and GCU.

But on the final day of the March to May, FAU displayed its potential to continue playing come May, stunning an undefeated LSU team, 3-2, picking up victories on court one — Erica Brok and Mackenzie Morris — two — Marketa Svozilova and Courtney Moon — and five — Abby Jackson and Logan Mignerey. It marked the highest-ranked team FAU has beaten in school history, providing the first of now two blemishes on LSU’s record, as the Tigers would fall to UCLA later on Sunday.

“The matchup with LSU had potential to be good for us,” FAU coach Steve Grotowski said. “We like to move the ball around from pin to pin on offense, and they have some inexperienced blockers. We were able to execute [on court five and two]. It was fantastic to get a dominant win on five.”

At 9-6, FAU is still far from guaranteed a berth into the NCAA Championships. The Owls will need to stack several more wins over the course of the season to assure their place when the real tournament in Gulf Shores is set to begin. They’ll have their chances next week, when they visit Deland, Fla. for the Stetson Beach Bash, joining No. 16 Stetson, No. 14 Georgia State, No. 17 FIU, and unranked Coastal Carolina.

“All in all, it was a good weekend for our team,” Grotowski said. “We have some players in our lineup who are still very new to college beach volleyball. I’m confident we will continue as the season progresses.”

Pair of the week: FSU’s Anderson, Bauer

It is never easy to predict how well a transfer will mesh in a new environment, a new team, a new culture — even if Brook Bauer had been relatively accustomed to that “new” environment her entire life. A four-year starter for Pepperdine, Bauer, a product of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, transferred to Florida State for her final season of eligibility, to play in a state that still feels like home, for a coach she knows well, in an environment that is all but unfamiliar.

She’s made the transition to Tallahassee just fine.

Partnered with Maddie Anderson, the CollegeBeachVB pre-season Breakthrough Player of the Year, Bauer is now 10-3 in a Seminole uniform, all on court one. This weekend, Bauer and Anderson went undefeated, only dropping a single set in victories over Grand Canyon’s Anaya Evans and Jess Vastine, UCLA’s Lexy Denaburg and Abby Van Winkle, Tulane’s Kendall Peters and Maddie Speicher, and South Carolina’s Skylar Allen and Whitley Ballard.

“Maddie and Brook have a drive to constantly get better, as does our entire team,” FSU coach Brooke Niles said. “Their focus is on their side of the net and learning each weekend.”

Most Notable Result: Unbeaten UCLA tops FSU

With the help of the Pair of the Week, Florida State had UCLA on the proverbial ropes on Friday afternoon, as Anderson and Bauer and court two duo Alaina Chacon and Madison Fitzpatrick both claimed victories over the Bruins. The Noles needed just one more victory between courts three, four, and five to land an upset that wasn’t necessarily seismic, but it certainly wouldn’t have been an insignificant one.

But there was no upset to be had.

UCLA’s mettle was on display once again, as both Sophie Moore and Natalie Myszkowski — more on them below — on court four and Jessica Smith and Marlie Monserez rebounded from first set losses to win in three over Florida State’s Anna Long and Jordan Polo, and Kate Privett and Raelyn White, respectively. No such comebacks were needed on court three, as Jaden Whitmarsh and Devon Newberry won, 26-24, 21-14, over Keara Rutz and Alex Hilton.

The victory marked UCLA’s twelfth ranked win of the season — 12! — and the Bruins’ second over a top-five team.

Myszkowski, Moore improve to 14-0 for UCLA

While the pairings on the top courts get much of the attention — and somewhat deservedly so — NCAA beach is unique from its professional counterpart in that it’s a team sport: A victory on court 1 equal in value to a win on court 5. Depth is king in the NCAA, and UCLA has proven that it has remarkable depth, most notably on court four, where Natalie Myszkowski and Sophie Moore have continued a dominant season, winning 14 straight for the Bruins.

Both true freshmen, Myszkowski and Moore have dropped only four sets all season, the court four linchpin of a young UCLA team that has maintained its grip on the No. 1 ranking in the country.

Georgia State’s upset bid over UCLA falls short

It is perhaps no coincidence that, in what had the potential to be the biggest upset of the season, Natalize Myszkowski and Sophie Moore were absent from UCLA’s lineup in a matchup with Georgia State.

Typically on court five, Jessica Smith and Marlie Monserez were promoted to four — they won, 21-17, 21-18 over Georgia State’s Angel Ferary and Bella Ferary — which called for Tessa Van Winkle and Pani Napolean to fill in on court five. Georgia State’s Becky Tresham and Chloee Kleespies landed the upset on five, winning 18-21, 21-18, 18-16, the second court the Panthers had taken from the Bruins, with Eden Hawes and Maddy Delmonte claiming victory on three.

It came down to a wild match on court one, between UCLA’s Abby Van Winkle and Lexy Denaburg and Georgia State’s Kelly Dorn and Elise Saga. It would be Van Winkle and Denaburg who prevailed, 24-26, 21-12, 18-16, but it was a match that displays the increasing depth of the NCAA.

Here was the 14th-ranked team in the country, pushing the undefeated No. 1. And when the NCAA returns to Gulf Shores in May, and the first round is a single elimination format, there will be no easy wins to be found.

South Carolina tops two ranked opponents in Gulf Shores

Before FAU’s historic win over LSU — the Tigers were the highest ranked team the Owls have ever beaten — it was South Carolina landing an early upset, defeating FAU on the first day of the March to May. It was the first of two ranked wins for the Gamecocks this weekend, as they finished Gulf Shores with a 4-1 victory over Tulane.

The Gamecocks have been something of a mystery this season, losing a puzzler to Stetson early on, but they have made an impressive run in the last two weeks. In a rainy and windy home tournament one week ago, South Carolina beat Pepperdine for the first time in school history, 4-1.

Aside from the early-season loss to Stetson, five of the Gamecocks’ other six losses have come to opponents ranked in the top five, with the other coming to Georgia State.

FIU extends record to 11-1

Florida International was not in Gulf Shores this weekend, but were in Babson Park, Florida, playing two matches against Webber. They swept both, as they should, extending their record to a quiet 11-1. Of those 11 wins, the most notable are two victories over North Florida and another over Florida Gulf Coast. This week, however, FIU will finally be tested, as the Panthers travel to Deland for the Stetson Beach Bash, where they will see Georgia State, Coastal Carolina, FAU, and Stetson, before making the trip to California for the annual East Meets West, held at the Manhattan Beach Pier.

Cal wins three on Sunday, beats Pepperdine 4-1

Sunday was no Sabbath day for the Cal Bears. No, the Bears played three matches at Cal Poly, winning all three, capped by a 4-1 win over a Pepperdine program that continues to struggle finding its footing in an increasingly deep West Coast Region.

Cal has now won six of its last seven, with two notable wins over Hawai’i and Pepperdine.

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Travis Mewhirter