Final Stats
HOUSTON – The Spring 2016 semester marked the inaugural season for the HBU beach volleyball program. Posting a 7-11 record, the Huskies have begun a new chapter in athletics. One in the sand.
"Going in, everybody asked how it was going for us," head coach
Trent Herman said. "We didn't really know what this was going to be like. We could map it out and say it will be 'this' way, but it was like playing with all freshmen. It really was, because it was new to all of them, at least at the collegiate level."
A beach volleyball match features five pairings competing in a best-of-three-sets format. The first two sets go to 21 points. If a decisive third set is called for, the winning team of both the set and match is the first to 15 points. All three sets must be won by a minimum of a two-point margin. Both teams switch sides throughout the sets, so each combat with sun and wind evenly. Matches are a best-of-five format.
"Every player that competes in beach volleyball knows their score impacts the outcome of winning or losing," assistant coach
Cameron Sitler said. "In reality though, it is their result plus four others pairings that determine the result for the team. Our last weekend we really grasped the concept of learning how to compete for your own win, but, in the end, also pushing for your team win and that's crucial."
The Huskies brought in three players specifically for beach, with freshmen
Aeriel Horton and
Guinevere Meyer, and graduate student
Haley Durham. Horton and Meyer spent all fall training with Durham joining after the semester change.
"In the fall, it was just (Meyer) and I," Horton said. "We kind of had to figure things out on our own. (Durham) joined us and kind of guided us through it, but it wasn't until all the indoor girls joined our practices that we really started to feel like a team."
Nine indoor student-athletes made the crossover to beach –
Rachel Angeles,
Kayla Armer,
Bailey Banks,
Hailey Erickson,
Laura Fox,
Melissa Fuchs,
Madison O'Brien,
Ashlee Vann and
Jessica Wooten.
"I've been playing indoor volleyball all my life, so crossing over to beach was difficult," Wooten said. "You jump different in the sand. You set different. There's more thinking and strategy involved, because there's just two players. Communication is key."
The Huskies held their first full-team practice at the end of February and practiced for two weeks before opening their season on March 17 with a home dual against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Playing at Third Coast Volleyball, less than three miles from campus near Hillcroft and Harwin, HBU downed the Islanders, 3-2 and 5-0, to open the beach era.
"It was great to finally get out there and compete against someone other than ourselves," Horton said. "There was a great crowd on hand and you could tell there was a lot of excitement with beach volleyball officially getting underway. Beating Texas A&M-Corpus Christi was a great starting off point."
From there, the Huskies played their next 10 matches on the road, participating in tournaments at TCU, TAMU-CC and Tulane. HBU picked up two more wins against the Islanders, while also testing themselves against established programs and different weather elements.
The TCU tournament – Fight at the Fort – pitted the Huskies against No. 2 Florida State, while the team saw three ranked opponents in No. 8 Georgia State, No. 12 LSU and No. 18 Tulane, at the Green Wave Beach Invitational. Both FSU and GSU were a part of the eight-team field to advance to the first-ever NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship, with the Seminoles taking runner-up honors.
"We played some very tough competition," Wooten said. "Some of the programs we went up against were nationally ranked and had already been established for several years already, so it was a great way to gauge where we were and our progress."
HBU hosted its inaugural tournament – HBU Beach Invitational – across April 15-16 to close out its home schedule. There, the Huskies took runner-up honors with a 2-1 record, picking up 4-1 and 5-0 victories over New Orleans and Lee College, before being edged 3-2 by TAMU-CC.
HBU closed out its season at LSU's Battle on the Bayou on April 30. The Huskies picked up their seventh win with a 4-1 triumph over UNO, while also playing heavily contested sets in their matches against TCU and No. 18 Tulane. The HBU tandem of Armer and Durham won the No. 3 pairing against the Green Wave, 10-21, 21-19, 15-7, the first pairing win over a ranked opponent.
"For me, it has really worked out well," Herman said. "Being the first year, I don't think they knew quite what to expect, especially for our dual-sport athletes. Overall, it was a great experience for us as coaches and for the team. I'm excited to see what we are going to look like in the years to come."
