It isn’t a secret that LSU has emerged as one of the top dogs in college beach volleyball over the past few seasons. Though the program was established a mere eight years ago, it has wasted no time transforming itself into a championship contender.
Every year from 2016 to 2018 was a step up from the last, with the team maintaining an upward trajectory despite a coaching change in 2017 and quickly reaching the plateau that is the perennial top-five. From there they have continued to accomplish new things, narrowly missing out on advancing to the national championship in 2019 and 2021 and finishing the shortened 2020 season ranked No. 1.
That sequence of achievement carried on into the current season, where the Tigers managed to obtain the program record for most regular season wins in a season, besting 27 teams and 11 that ranked in the top-20. The best of those came against No. 4 Loyola Marymount (twice), No. 7 Grand Canyon and No. 9 Hawaii.
But there is a reason LSU is the fifth or sixth favorite to claim the championship, the same reason a title has just barely escaped their grasp the last two postseasons. LSU has a tough time cracking the wall that is the college beach volleyball hierarchy.
UCLA, USC and Florida State have maintained powerhouse status throughout the last near-decade of play, thorns in the sides of any team aspiring to finish in the top-three. They have just one below top-five finish between them since 2016, and that came in the form of USC’s No. 6 finish in the shortened 2020 season.
They, along with the resurgent TCU, have not surrendered a single match to LSU this season, holding a 7-0 record when they’ve matched up. Despite that, head coach Russell Brock believes a change in strategy isn’t warranted, believing a few balls going the other way could have flipped some of those matches, and that the team’s progression speaks for itself.
In their last matches against No. 2 TCU and No. 3 UCLA, the Tigers were edged out 2-3, an improvement from their 1-4 showing in their prior meetings. Those rematches weren’t just close in score alone either. Six of the thirteen sets played in the TCU match were decided by two points and four of the five matches against UCLA were pushed to a third set.
“I know we’re at a place where we know we can beat those teams,” Coach Brock said. “It’s more about [continuing] to build our confidence, lean into the things that make us great and then executing percentage points better on a grand scale.”
As Coach Brock would point out, LSU has been known to learn from its regular-season losses in recent history. Despite losing to Florida State four times last season (including in the conference tournament), the Tigers managed to pull off a win over the Seminoles when it mattered most, allowing them to advance to the elimination semifinals of the NCAA tournament.
As mentioned before, LSU has also beaten Loyola Marymount twice, a team that recently took down both UCLA and Florida State.
“We know that we can be successful against these teams,” Brock stated. “Our track record up until this point will have no bearing on our ability to have confidence going into those matches.”
LSU is expected to have a few more shots to gauge where the team is compared to these teams in the conference tournament. TCU and Florida State each reside in the CCSA with the Tigers, and barring anything unforeseen occurring, are predicted to be a part of their path to the conference title.
Some of the other advantages the coach and players provided were comradery, positive attitude and competitive depth, with Coach Brock crediting this team as being the best he’s had in terms supporting and engaging each other and senior Kelli Greene-Agnew and freshman Parker Bracken each mentioning the team’s positive attitude and competitive practices.
“Our team is so deep, which basically means that literally anybody could play in the lineup at any point,” Bracken discussed. “I personally feel like when we get to compete against each other in practice, it’s like playing those super hard games that we play, so that really prepares us.”
Even with postseason play quickly approaching and many tough foes awaiting, the players seem unfazed, with any nerves coming in the form of excitement. This is a consistent attitude for the program according to Greene-Agnew.
“We’ve obviously been very different teams each year,” Greene-Agnew remarked. “But each team has worked hard, and we’ve always gone in with a positive attitude.”
That attitude and drive to excel has gotten the Tigers within reach of claiming a national title on multiple occasions. The question is, when will they be close enough to grab it?
We will find out if this is the year next week but for now, LSU’s first conference tournament match will be against Missouri State at 11 a.m. on Thursday. The winner takes on No. 5 Florida State in the semifinals and should expect to see TCU in the championship game if they advance further.
