NCAA beach volleyball, part 2: C-USA, WCC, Sun Belt, ASUN, SLC, OVC
NCAA Beach
Larry Hamel
February 21, 2024
TCU’s Anhelina Khmil jousts with USC’s Madison Shields/Michael Gomez photo
This is the second of two stories previewing the NCAA beach volleyball season that begins Thursday. Part 2 looks at Conference USA, the West Coast Conference, Sun Belt, ASUN, Southland and Ohio Valley. High-profile independents Texas and Nebraska also are detailed. Finally, we spin from Hawaii to Texas to Florida (with stops in between), running down an event-filled opening-week schedule.
Conference USA
The league’s profile soared when NCAA Championship semifinalist TCU, which held the No. 1 spot in the AVCA coaches poll for six weeks last season, left the CCSA for C-USA.
Hector Gutierrez, the 2023 AVCA coach of the year, must figure out a workaround for the Olympics absences of AVCA pair of the year Daniela Alvarez and Tania Moreno. But the Horned Frogs remain squarely in the hunt for the NCAA title, checking in at No. 4 in the preseason ranking. Alvarez and Moreno have eligibility remaining, but are on track to represent their native Spain in Paris and have focused on the Volleyball World Tour.
A new top duo might have had a coming-out party in November, when junior Hailey Hamlett and sophomore Anhelina Khmil (the CCSA freshman of the year) took the gold medal in the AVCA National Pairs Championship in Huntsville, Alabama. Sutton MacTavish and Ana Vergara also are battle-tested returnees from a squad that finished 37-3 and eliminated Stetson and Stanford in the NCAAs before falling 3-2 to USC in the semis. Look for the Horned Frogs to loom large again in the single-elimination NCAA Beach Championships (May 1 and 3-5) in Gulf Shores, Alabama, the final year of the event’s run on the Redneck Riviera before it moves to “Surf City,” Huntington Beach, California, in 2025.
A two-bid league last season, C-USA saw its membership swell to nine with not only TCU but with the addition of Missouri State from the CCSA and debut beach program Tarleton State. Holdover staples Florida Atlantic (No. 11 in the preseason poll) and Florida International (ranked 13th) are expected to be solid again.
FAU (19-14 in 2023) can build around Julie Honzovicova (half of the C-USA pair of the year), Ashleigh Adams and Courtney Moon.
FIU (20-17) has a new coach in Terri Del Conti, who replaced the iconic Rita Buck-Crockett. Back for the Panthers are second-team AVCA All-American Lucie Pokorna, Giada Bianchi, Lisa Luini and Alice Pratesi.
Tulane gathered momentum with a 24-10 record and sits on the cusp of the national top 20. Savka Popovic and Lara Torruella have been lower-court producers for the Green Wave, who picked up a portal plumb in record-breaking Trinity Jackson from crosstown rival New Orleans. Jackson’s father, Kevin, won the Olympic gold medal in freestyle wrestling (181 pounds) at the 1992 Barcelona Games. Also in C-USA are Alabama-Birmingham (18-16) and upstreaming programs Texas-El Paso and Jacksonville State.
West Coast Conference
The six other league coaches agreed that John Mayer’s Loyola Marymount team was the best in the WCC. The Lions, ranked fifth nationally, were 29-9 in 2023 and are stacked with talent, most notably first-team AVCA All-American Valma Prihti – a 6-foot junior out of Finland who was half of the WCC 2023 pair of the year with the departed Melanie Paul – and five others named to the league’s all-preseason squad: Madi Firnett, 2023 WCC freshman of the year Chloe Hooker, Jacinda Ramirez, Michelle Shaffer and Abbey Thorup. Mayer’s deep crew sits on a short list of legitimate national-title contenders after falling 3-1 to USC in the NCAA quarterfinals (for more on Mayer and LMU, listen to this week’s SANDCAST).
The WCC was awarded only one entry into the 17-team NCAA field last year, and hoping to change that is Pepperdine, 19-14 last season and ranked 19th in the preseason poll. The Waves will lean heavily on Kate Clermont, McKenna Thomas and Czech national Sarlota Svobodova, a grad transfer from Coastal Carolina. After the Lions and Waves in the preseason poll came Santa Clara (15-16), Saint Mary’s, San Francisco, Portland and Pacific, all of which were under .500, with Pacific going winless over 22 duals.
Georgia State won the 2023 Sun Belt title
Sun Belt Conference
Those fabulous Ferary twins – 5-foot-4 “tynamos” Angel and Bella – are back for another season at Georgia State, joyous news for beach volleyball fans but a nightmare scenario for opponents who must deal with their unique brand of scrambling “small ball.” Seniors Angel and Bella were second-team AVCA All-Americans, the Sun Belt pair of the year and the only team to knock off USC first-team All-Americans Megan Kraft and Delaynie Maple during the regular season. The Sandy Panthers, 20-17 in 2023, are ranked No. 12 in the preseason poll and are the only Sun Belt program to crack the top 20. Coach Beth Van Fleet returns five others who competed in the team’s NCAA tournament first-round loss to USC: Sun Belt newcomer of the year Lila Burdis, Elise Saga, Ayla Johnson, Destiny White and Alisa Vourinen.
Coastal Carolina, 25-13 last season with victories over Cal Poly, Washington, Florida Atlantic and Division-II champion Tampa, might vie for some national attention. Maddie Lichty, Madison Allred and Rachyel Ehlers give the Chanticleers an experienced core.
College of Charleston (21-14) lost a key player when Gabi Bailey jumped to LSU, but Kora Hansen and Maria Zweig return. Rounding out the league are Louisiana-Monroe (coming off of a 31-4 campaign playing against lower-level competition), Southern Mississippi, Mercer, Stephen F. Austin and North Carolina-Wilmington.
Atlantic Sun Conference
Holding down No. 16 in the preseason poll is Stetson, the perennial standard-bearer of the ASUN under Coach Kristina Hernandez. Second-team AVCA All-American Shea Henson is back for a fifth go-round for the Hatters (22-15 in 2023), but partner Karin Zolnercihova was lassoed by Texas out of the portal. Aleksandra Stadnik, Gabriella Bramonte, Audrey Gauthier and Tori Clement also competed in Stetson’s 3-0 loss to TCU in the NCAA tournament.
Florida Gulf Coast (19-18 last season) has a proven commodity in 5-foot-11 Kacie Johnson, a three-time first-team All-ASUN selection, but Johnson’s partner, Maddison Palmelli, hit the transfer portal to Texas. North Florida (24-11) will have depth with ASUN freshman of the year Madison Espy, Presley Murray, Katie Camp and Michaela Rezentes. North Alabama (20-16) returns first-team All-ASUN defensive whiz Paula Klemperer. Filling out the conference are Austin Peay, Eastern Kentucky, Jacksonville and Central Arkansas.
Southland Conference
Texas A&M Corpus Christi found a significant piece in the depth puzzle with the portal addition of 6-foot-2 grad student Stephanie Young, a highly serviceable “big” for Florida Atlantic while playing in the pair who won their first-round NCAA tournament match on court 5 against LSU. The Islanders were 25-10 (undefeated against Southland competition) and have seven of the 10 starters who played in their NCAA play-in victory back, including Southland freshman of the year Kristen Bobay and her Court 2 running mate, Chloe Tome. Coach Gayle Stammer’s team might have the stuff to pull an upset along the way while competing in events at TCU, LSU, Stanford and FSU.
Boise State quietly built a 25-10 record while going 6-0 against Pac-12 geographic rivals Oregon and Utah. The Broncos boast dependable veterans in Rorianna Chartier and Sierra Land, and a potential riser in 6-foot-1 sophomore Ava Anderson. Houston Christian went 17-18 while scheduling tough and pulled a late-season shocker against ranked Stanford. New Orleans (21-16) feasted against the lower-level teams but needs to show it can step up against the better programs. San Jose State (11-9) might get better, while Nicholls State and first-year program McNeese State are along for the ride in a one-bid league.
Ohio Valley Conference
Tennessee-Martin was tabbed as the team to beat in the preseason poll after a 27-9 season that saw the Skyhawks knock off Stetson and Georgia State, programs with national reputations higher up the beach food chain, while going 10-0 in OVC duals. Dylan Mott, Olivia O’Keefe and Helieigh Paulino are key returnees for UT-Martin. Hoping to ground the Skyhawks is Chattanooga (19-15, 7-3 OVC in 2023). Junior Neva Clark, the reigning OVC Player of the Year, was one of four Mocs voted to the preseason all-league squad. Morehead State (14-13, 6-4) was the poll’s third choice, followed by Tennessee Tech, Lindenwood and Eastern Illinois. The OVC was a one-bid conference in the 2023 NCAA tournament field and UT-Martin lost 3-0 in the 16-17 play-in match to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
Around the nation
Competing as independents are the prominent programs that squared off for the indoor NCAA title, Texas and Nebraska, but have opposite objectives on the sand.
The Longhorns’ debut beach season netted a 1-12 record with crossover athletes. However, Texas aspires to build a national contender after hiring Coach Stein Metzger away from storied UCLA. Metzer hit the portal hard and collected a bounty of talent that included second-team AVCA All-American Karin Zolnercikova (Stetson), Maddison Parmelly (a star for Florida Gulf Coast), Emma Grace Robertson (highly productive as a freshman at Florida Atlantic) and 5-foot-11 redshirt freshman Macey Butler (UCLA), an Austin native with deep training in USA Volleyball’s developmental program.
Nebraska (15-5 in 2023) will continue to have its beach team serve as a training platform for its indoor program, cutting off its schedule in mid-March. All of the Huskers’ familiar hardcourt stars are on the beach roster, including Lexi Rodriguez, Harper Murray and Merritt Beason. Fans in volleyball-mad Nebraska likely will closely track the progress of heralded freshman Skyler Pierce.
Tampa (21-13) returns Division-II All-American Payton Brunick and will be the host school for two high-profile events, as well as playing in FSU’s Seminole Beach Bash. Colorado Mesa is coming off a 19-8 campaign in which it was runner-up to Tampa in the AVCA Small College Championships, and has booked a schedule sprinkled with “name” opponents.
Baptisms of fire out of the box
The marquee events of the NCAA beach season’s opening week will take place in Hawaii, Houston and three Florida cities, with a shout-out to the hoedown in Bayou Country. All 20 ranked teams will hit the sand during first-week action that spans Thursday through Sunday.
Gathering on Queen’s Beach for the Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Beach Classic on Thursday, Friday and Saturday will be an all-star lineup of No. 1 USC (the three-time defending NCAA champions), No. 2 UCLA (the 2023 NCAA runner-up), No. 5 Loyola Marymount, No. 7 Stanford and host Hawaii, ranked ninth.
Houston Christian will welcome No. 3 TCU, No. 6 Louisiana State, No. 15 Washington and Central Arkansas to its Third Coast College Classic on Friday and Saturday.
No. 3 Florida State will join No. 13 Florida International, Coastal Carolina, Chattanooga, North Florida, Palm Beach Atlantic and host Jacksonville for the Dolphin Duels on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Hopping over to Florida’s West Coast, the Tampa Invitational has a stacked lineup on Friday and Saturday featuring No. 11 Florida Atlantic, No. 12 Georgia State, No. 17. South Carolina, No. 18 Arizona State and the host Spartans (the defending D-II champs).
In Central Florida, the Stetson Spring Fling on Friday and Saturday in quaint DeLand will have the host Hatters (ranked 16th), Florida Gulf Coast, Southern Mississippi, Mercer and Eckerd.
Down on the Bayou, Coach Yasmin Tan of McNeese State will jump-start her team’s inaugural season with the Cowgirl Beach Bash in Lake Charles, Louisiana, on Friday and Saturday. Cinched in for the first rodeo are the No. 20 Cal Poly Mustangs, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Nicholls State from cross-state Thibodeaux and the Tarleton State Texans, a fellow debut program out of Stephenville, the self-proclaimed “Cowboy Capital of the World.”
Staying in the Delta, Tulane’s Green Wave Invitational on Friday and Saturday welcomes New Orleans, North Alabama, Stephen F. Austin, Southeastern Louisiana and Spring Hill College of Alabama. The outlier in this down-home affair is Oregon.
Flipping to the Pacific Coast, No. 8 California will play host to San Jose State and American River on Friday, and Saint Mary’s and Santa Clark on Saturday. The Pepperdine Challenge in Malibu will see the 19th-ranked Waves, No. 10 Long Beach State and Vanguard in a tri-dual on Saturday.
In the desert, the Cactus Classic in Tucson on Friday and Saturday includes host Arizona, Boise State, Cal State Bakersfield, UTEP, San Francisco and Colorado Mesa.
In nearby Phoenix, No. 14 Grand Canyon will hold two days of tri-duals with Arizona Christian and Ottawa of Arizona on Saturday, and Boise State (pulling double desert duty) and Alabama-Birmingham on Sunday.
And tucked away in the Ozarks is the Missouri State Tournament with the host Bears, Tennessee-Martin, Louisiana-Monroe, Lindenwood, Oklahoma Wesleyan and Hendrix College.
