During the 2022-23 athletic year, LSU indoor and beach volleyball both made advancements in the NCAA Tournament, and both had a player familiar to each other in its starting lineup.
One year later, and the script has changed. LSU indoor volleyball didn’t receive a bid to the 2023 NCAA Tournament, and it also lacked the previously shared player.
Fans went into the Pete Maravich Assembly Center during the 2023 season looking for the familiar player, assuming she’d be wearing a different-colored jersey.
She wasn’t wearing a different-colored jersey.
She wasn’t on the court, or on the sidelines, either.
She was gone.
“I did not expect that, I didn’t see it coming,” Tonya Johnson, LSU indoor volleyball head coach, told the Reveille in August.
LSU indoor volleyball’s 2023 season didn’t have its 2022 AVCA South All-Region selection and starting libero, Ella Larkin.
Larkin was expected to be a leader in 2023 after anchoring the backrow defense in 2022. During the 2022 season, she picked up 4.34 digs per set to lead the Southeastern Conference. Her 516 total digs also led the conference.
Despite the high praise and accomplishments on the court, the dual-sport athlete couldn’t get her heart to stay in one place. While she was competing with the indoor team, her heart wandered elsewhere.
“My heart is in the sand and I [wasn’t] giving it all,” Larkin said. “I want to give it all out in the sand.”
Larkin carried the weight of playing indoor and beach volleyball for LSU, but she decided after the 2022 indoor season that it would be her last. Her fall 2023 semester was spent training in the sand rather than playing on the court.
“When I played indoor last fall, I just kept thinking, ‘I really miss being out on the beach and being out in the sand,'” Larkin said.
Shortly after Larkin verbally committed to LSU beach volleyball in high school, she signed to the indoor team as well. Having grown up a multi-sport athlete in Maize, Kansas, the juggling of commitments seemed plausible. What she didn’t take into account was how beach volleyball would pull on her heartstrings.
“Going to practice every single day, I was like, ‘I think beach is where I want to be at, beach is where I want to give all my time to,’” Larkin said. “That led to talking to Tonya [Johnson] and the coaches.”
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The conversation between Larkin and Johnson was the end of Larkin’s time as an indoor player, but she’ll continue to feel the indoor program’s support. While she’s out in the sand, Johnson and the indoor team will be cheering her on from afar.
“I know that she has a passion for playing on the beach, and she’s a heck of a beach player,” Johnson told the Reveille in August. “I think she’s going to do really well out there, so we’re excited for her and we wish her the best of luck.”
Once she ended her time with the indoor team, Larkin’s next step was fully committing to the beach team. Even with conflicting agendas of wanting one of his star players to himself, Head Coach Russell Brock and the beach program never weighed in on Larkin’s decision.
“We supported her along the way [and] knew that it was something that she was considering,” Brock said. “We root for the indoor team. If she’s playing, we’re going to go and cheer on. If she’s not playing, then we’re still going to hope the indoor team does well, but we’re going to be excited to have her with us.”
During this process, Larkin dealt with longing for the sand and contemplating future goals. This left her with the question of, how do you make a choice?
“Ultimately, that’s the decision of the player,” Brock said. “I’m sure it was a very difficult process for her and her family to decide, ‘Do I want to pour fully into this sport or do I want to keep going half in and half out with two sports?’”
With the glass looking half empty and her heart feeling half in, Larkin knew splitting time with both programs wasn’t worth it anymore. After two years of doing so, the indoor and beach volleyball star has reserved her shine for the sand and hopes to see it positively affect her performance this upcoming season.
“I’m excited to play against really good teams and show everybody how good LSU is this year,” Larkin said.
