“Texas is a volleyball school.”
“Texas is a volleyball school.”
No, what you're hearing is not an echo. Rather, the reigning (again!) NCAA women's volleyball champions, Gerrit Elliott, are no longer the only team on campus. With the addition of women's beach volleyball as her 21st Division 1 sport in college, Texas has doubled her as a volleyball school. Beach volleyball will have a so-called soft opening in 2023, with assistant coaches and players from indoor teams playing outdoors on a shortened schedule. Things became a reality this year, with a roster of primarily beach-focused transfers under new head coach Stein Metzger.
It may have been Metzger's first year at Forty Acres, but he was already at the top of his profession. Metzger, a former indoor national champion in the '90s and three-time national champion at UCLA, started with UCLA's beach program in 2013 after playing both professional beach volleyball and the 2004 U.S. Olympic team. . His Bruins won the NCAA title in 2018. Both 2021 and 2023 fell slightly short.
“He not only had the pedigree, but he also had the character that we wanted, to treat kids the right way and approach them the right way,” Elliott says. He currently holds the title of director of volleyball operations in addition to his indoor coaching duties. . “We hit a home run with him.”
(Coach, aren't you talking about an ace or a kill?)
Beach is played in teams of two, with five best-of-three “duals” making up the match. It's very different from me in the indoor 6 position where players have more specialized roles. The indoor team has always played on a small beach for fun and skill development. But even stars like Madisen Skinner and Assia O'Neal, BS '21, MEd '22, have found it difficult to play competitively. UT's interim team finished just 1-12 in 2023.
“This just shows you how different the game is,” Metzger said. “When you play indoors, you can choose which skills to perform. Your hitter is going to hit. Your blocker is going to block. On the beach, it's up to the matchup to decide what you're going to do. It's the opponent…It makes you a whole different kind of athlete. You have to be a jack of all trades.”
“It's like trying to play tennis against badminton,” Elliott says. “You can't take one player and have success with both. It takes a little bit of a learning curve.”
There are also differences in detailed rules. But the biggest differences are the sand surface (which also depends on whether you're playing on an actual beach or somewhere like the Wright Whitaker Sports Complex) and the wind. Teams switch sides after every 7 of his points to avoid giving one team an advantage (on the so-called “good side”). And in any tournament, morning winds and afternoon winds may not be the same. “So you need to be able to change the way the game is played within a day, sometimes even during the game,” Metzger said.
For Metzger, the chance to build another powerhouse program in a place like Texas was a natural fit. He's from Hawaii, not California, and his two children (his daughter Quinn, 13, and son Otto, 11) are still young enough for him and his wife Emily to make the move. It was just the right time. And Texas already had a booming junior (high school) beach volleyball scene, second only to California and Florida, amid a general boom at the collegiate level. In 2012, his Division I Beach program had only 15 programs, and now he has over 100 programs.
“Texas has been a growing market for recruiting in recent years,” Metzger said. “And Texans love going to Texas. They all understand the power of [the University] And the strength of education, and of course athletics. So I thought this could be the next big thing in terms of dominant teams across the country. ”
Ten of the 12 Beach exclusives on the 2024 roster are from Texas, including Katie Hashman and Macy Butler (transfer from UCLA) and Chloe Charles (Florida State Final Four player in 2023). Six of them are from Austin, including A.D.) and her sister. Eva and Carys Patton are the daughters of former Longhorns defensive great James Patton, 2002 BBA, 2007 MBA, Life Member.
Eva was a soccer player and Callies an indoor volleyball player, but they caught the beach bug (one of Callies' teammates had a court in their backyard) and switched their focus to the world of junior clubs and tournaments. But being good enough to play in college meant not getting into the universities they grew up admiring.
“We were coming to the football game,” Ava Patton says. “And we were like: This is very depressing. We can't go here! ”
She enrolled at TCU hoping to at least be close to home in Texas. She said that as a redshirt freshman there, she sometimes had to remember that she wasn't allowed to wear burnt orange.
The Horned Frogs were the No. 1 team in the nation last year, but lost in the Final Four to eventual champion USC. But once UT announced it had hired Metzger and started recruiting, “I knew I had to be there. I called the coaches and said, 'I have to be there.' [said] 'Hello, I'm sorry. I want to leave.' Then I entered the transfer portal.'' (Carys Patton, who is a year younger, also originally committed to TCU.)
This 2024 season, which ended on April 13th, was also basically a transition period. (At the time this issue of Alcalde went to press in early April, the team, which featured seven full-time players, five redshirts, and some players from the indoor lineup, was 5-5 with six games remaining.) ) When the full recruiting class arrives in 2025 (and inevitably more transfers), he will have a complete roster, a fully integrated system, and a culture. Like all Texas programs, the goal is to make everything the best it can be, from the facilities to the social media to the staff. One of Metzger's assistants, Angie Akers, led the U.S. to a gold medal at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, while another, David Buchanan, led the powerhouse Mud Sands national junior team based in Plano. Established.
In addition to that, we plan to continue competing for championships, which could be as early as next season. Eva Patton, for example, feels they have the coaching, drive, and mental strength to do it.
“When we came here, a lot of people probably doubted all of us,” she says. “'What are they thinking? It's brand new. Why would they leave a really good school and do something like this? It's not going to work out right away.' But I think we really are.” . ”
Credit: Texas Athletics