After going up against its first ranked opponent of the season last weekend, this weekend the Sandy Tigs look to face the newest No. 1 ranked team in the country, Texas Christian University.
This past weekend saw a lot of upsets in the beach volleyball world. No. 2 Florida State University and No. 3 TCU faced off at The Tampa Invitational and TCU pulled off the 4-1 upset. After TCU and Florida State’s game, No. 4 USC and No. 1 UCLA went head-to-head at The Pac-12 South Invitational. USC came out victorious with a 3-2 win over its in-state rival.
The newest AVCA Collegiate Beach Coaches Poll was released on March 7, and with the weekend having consisted of two upsets, every team in the top five last week was moved around this week. TCU received the No. 1 spot over USC, who was given the No. 2 spot.
TCU takes the No. 1 spot with only four more first-place votes than the Trojans. UCLA fell to No. 3 in the poll, and following the Bears is a tie for No. 4 between Florida State and LSU.
Taking down the No. 2 ranked team in the nation isn’t the only impressive win TCU has accomplished this season, and it’s only week two of gameplay. The Horned Frogs faced No. 10 Georgia State University and walked away with a 5-0 win.
The Horned Frogs scheduled tough for the 2023 season and have been met with strong competitors, coming out on top with 5-0 sweeps in all but one match, which came from the 4-1 FSU game. TCU has faced two top-10 opponents and took care of business easily.
LSU’s schedule, on the other hand, falls a little short in comparison to TCU’s. The only ranked opponent LSU has faced so far this season is South Carolina. A rigorous schedule with wins against ranked opponents may be the advantage TCU has over the Tigers that will make sure LSU doesn’t pull off another upset.
The Tigers have faced the Horned Frogs 12 times in program history, leading the series 9-3. The most recent win LSU has over TCU comes from the 2022 NC Beach Volleyball Championship in the elimination bracket. As the No. 6 seed in the tournament, LSU upset No. 2 seed TCU 3-2 to advance in the title run.
Despite LSU leading the series and pulling off the upset in the last meeting against the Horned Frogs, TCU has slowly been making a rise in the rankings over the years and proved last season that they’re in contention to be a powerhouse name in collegiate beach volleyball.
The Tigers know a win against TCU isn’t going to be an easy one, especially considering the jump the program has made from last season to now.
“It’s going to be a huge test,” said head coach Russell Brock. “They’re a really good team. They’re significantly better, in my opinion, than they were last year. [This past weekend] they had a big win over Florida State, who was two in the poll, so they’ll obviously trade places. So we know that’s going to be a big test.”
It looked like it was happening again.
Both teams are coming off historic 2022 seasons and have veteran-strong lineups.
LSU finished the regular season with 27 wins, breaking the program record of wins in a regular season. The Tigers also took wins 14 times against ranked opponents in 2022. TCU came out of the 2022 season with 21 wins against ranked opponents and ended the season with the program’s first advancement in the championship title run.
TCU returns two 2022 AVCA Collegiate Beach First-Team All-Americans, Daniela Alvarez and Tania Moreno. Alvarez and Moreno are praised as one of the best pairings in the country, and they have a very decorated resume to back it up.
The pair has been named to the AVCA Top Flight No. 1 team and was honored with the 2022 CCSA Pair of The Year award. Alvarez and Moreno compete on Court 1 for TCU and will likely be facing Tigers Kylie DeBerg and Ellie Shank. While DeBerg and Shank haven’t grabbed an All-American honor, the pair had a busy off-season to show their strengths of playing together as they won two championship titles undefeated after being put together in the fall.
LSU travels to Fort Worth, Texas this weekend and will face the TCU Horned Frogs twice, with one game on March 10 and one on March 11. The Tigers will head into Fort Worth knowing a long, hard-fought weekend is ahead of them.
“I’m not saying at all, and I wouldn’t tell [the players], that ‘Hey, we’re going to walk in there and we’re going to smack them,’” said Brock. “It’s going to be a battle, and they’re a good, well-trained team, so for us to have the chance in that environment at their place—we have to play the best version of our volleyball.”
With hopes of climbing the rankings and making it far in the NC Beach Volleyball Championship this year, a win against the No. 1 ranked team in the country would let everyone know that the Tigers are the ones to beat, and they have two shots to prove it this weekend.
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