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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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shadow_operative2.0

shadow_operative2.0 15,950

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Credit to @SL Xpress for mentioning the indoor players on the other thread. This explains why Wickley is still on family vacation Down Under. 

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This weekend the Texas roster will consist of seven transfer Beach Volleyball student-athletes and five indoor players. Ava Patton (TCU), Presley Wright (South Carolina), Emma Grace Robertson (FAU), Macey Butler (UCLA), Kelly McCloskey (LSU), Hannah Ogden (Stephen F. Austin) and Katie Hashman (UCLA) transferred to Texas in 2023. Indoor players Kenna Miller, Auburn Tomkinson, Averi Carlson, Reilly Heinrich and Devin Kahahawi will also compete this weekend. 

Surprised they're not traveling with two more. 

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SL Xpress

SL Xpress 7,513

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6 hours ago, shadow_operative2.0 said:

Been a long damn time since I've seen our IM complex in person. 

 

kHa3KRM.jpg

I knew Texas was aspiring to make a first class beach volleyball facility, but creating a manmade peninsula with a lake surrounding the complex on Guadalupe is more than I was prepared for. 

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perfectchaos007

perfectchaos007 6,627

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6 hours ago, SL Xpress said:

I knew Texas was aspiring to make a first class beach volleyball facility, but creating a manmade peninsula with a lake surrounding the complex on Guadalupe is more than I was prepared for. 

As a tennis player I’m really disappointed the Whittaker tennis courts are now under water. 

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gsoda3

gsoda3 3,252

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18 hours ago, shadow_operative2.0 said:

Been a long damn time since I've seen our IM complex in person. 

 

kHa3KRM.jpg

i was there last week, i wish it looked like this.  can't wait to get out there and watch the ladies play. hopefully they win more championships than i did on those fields.

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Js1

Js1 85,297

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23 minutes ago, JesusSweatDuck said:

We'll beat Nebraska.  They're not a real beach program, they just use it for extra training for their Fr and So indoor players.

Doesn't matter, still fun to beat Nebraska

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perfectchaos007

perfectchaos007 6,627

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2 minutes ago, shadow_operative2.0 said:

Carlson replaces Kenna at 5 against CSUN.

 

Live scoring has our logos reversed, so who knows how accurate it is. Currently losing 4 first sets, 1s getting murdered. 

I was checking the scoreboard and thought we were in good shape. Well, shit

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BadgerHorn

BadgerHorn 147

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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 types aren't interested in shooting the breeze with the plebs, so on the rare case I do engage, I'm careful to be quick.  I was just going to say hi and congrats on his first dual win, and let him continue on his way.  He stopped me for a few mins to talk - was interested in my ties to UT and the beach team, we talked AVP a bit, I told him how exciting it was to have him and Coach Akers on campus.  We went our separate ways. [a few hrs later]  After their last match concluded Sat, I was watching one of the other matches going on.  Coach walks by, we make eye contact, and we do the mutual head nod.  He takes a few steps past me, stops, walks back to me and asks "What did you think about the team's performance today?"  So you have an Olympian and an American beach volleyball great asking me, a guy who's skins on the wall include a few BB level bar league titles and the occasional 0.500 season at A level, what I thought.  We talked a bit about the pairing changes, the struggles on the first court, the late start to the season, etc.  I apologize to this forum for missing the opportunity to send him the link to this thread for all the answers.  I take the blame for any future losses.  Either way it was a cool experience - I'm not a parent of one of the girls; I'm not a BMD; I'm not a high school or club coach with a hotshot recruit.  Just a UT grad who loves beach volleyball and traveled out to see the team play and he took the time to engage.  Also got to speak briefly to Coach Akers.  Looking forward to seeing what those two can build at UT. 

On to my thoughts:

The bad news:

  • We're young and starting the season a few wks later than most teams.  So many signs of youth and limited chemistry:

    • Too many marriage balls / balls falling between the girls on serve receive due to miscommunication

    • Simple defenses.  We're line blocking almost exclusively - at least in the matches I saw.  On Sat, a few teams started mixing things up.  You usually keep it simple when 1) you're not confident your defender will read and react to blocking calls correctly or 2) the game is moving too fast and you don't have the ability to process everything going on in addition to identifying opponents' patterns that you can exploit via defensive calls.  The few times I saw us try angle or show blocks, maybe 1/3 of the time it was executed well and 2/3 they were late or out of position.

    • I wish we'd be more aggressive (but smart) on sending free balls.  There's a difference between floating an easy ball that they'll return in system at a 99% clip and a ball you purposely drop in between them, drop within 5', or push to the back line where you might cause some issues 10% of the time.  The set is to 21, but it's usually one or two points that lead to a win or loss.

  • I don't see a clear #1 on this team

  • We're weak at the #1 and #5 spots.  That means you need to sweep 2-4 to win a dual.

  • It's like our team is out of tweener casting. Everyone is 5'9" - 5'11" aside from Robertson at 6'1" and Devin.  Makes for good split blocking and defender reach, but not much in the way of blocking intimidation on this roster.  It would have been nice to put some of them behind Molly as a true blocker.

  • Those uniforms… I still don't like the big white stripe on the back.  And I could go on about the Macho Man glasses everyone seems to be wearing the past few years.  I don't get it.

The good news:

  • This team with mostly beach players is night and day from last year.  Aside from Madi, Molly, and maybe one or two others last year,  this team is way more fluid on the sand, quicker to get down and up, and more well rounded skill-wise to play beach.  No more littles who can't side out or bigs who are a huge liability in serve receive and setting… Ok, "no more" is too strong, but we're in much better shape.  There are still some lopsided scores, but I didn't see anyone that looked unnatural on the sand like we saw last year.

  • It seems like the coaches are teaching the girls how to scout opponents in these tournament environments.  The girls are still young and there's an element of seriousness/business that will have to be built to reap benefits from that studying.  It seems snack time can occasionally take priority over scouting… but I noticed similar from some of the LBSU girls who are very good.  Keep forgetting many of them are still teens.

  • Depending on the lineups, we can put together very competitive teams in the 2-4 spots

  • Hashman and McClockey have some pretty mean serving when dialed in.  Not tallying a bunch of aces, but can put the opponent in a bind.

  • Wright/Ogden and Butler/McCloskey are fun duos to watch.  Lots of live arms and Wright seems to have some fight/grit/spunk to her

I didn't see the notes about the scores being messed up until too late.  I hate trying to read my phone in the bright sun.  If memory serves, the had issues keeping the teams straight at this tournament last year too.  It looked like they had extra players and LBSU communications majors running the scoring. 

Who's going to be at TCU?
 

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shadow_operative2.0

shadow_operative2.0 15,950

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9 minutes ago, BadgerHorn said:

Simple defenses.  We're line blocking almost exclusively - at least in the matches I saw.

This is the truth with the fodder teams I always see at TCU also. We usually stand behind one side of Court 1, so easy to see the signals. 

 

12 minutes ago, BadgerHorn said:

And I could go on about the Macho Man glasses everyone seems to be wearing the past few years.  I don't get it.

Fucking this x 100. 

 

Two of us will be at the TCU dual in April, will shoot a PM before. 

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