#2 TCU vs #6 Cal Poly 5-3-2025 BVB Semifinal #2

 Dear Readers~

    Welcome to the second semifinal game. This game has #2 TCU (Texas Christian University) taking on #6 Cal Poly (California Polytechnic) to see who will join last week's winner in the national finals. After covering UCLA taking on UTC, LMU taking on USC, and UCLA taking on LMU, it's time I cover a game from the bottom half of the bracket and there's no better place to start than with who I think will win that national title but do I think that's who will actually win, let's get started to find out.

    Let's learn about our coaches, starting with TCU based in Fort Worth, Texas. TCU has Hector Gutierrez as their head coach while Majo Orellana is the assistant head coach, and Daniel Lindsey is the assistant coach. Gutierrez became head coach starting in the 2016-2017 season and has held the position ever since. Before being at TCU, Gutierrez was an assistant coach for Florida State's beach volleyball program. He even spent the first half of the 2010's helping coach both indoor and also beach volleyball for a variety of national teams besides the US. Prior to coaching, he even played indoor throughout his native country of Spain. Orellana got her start at TCU for the 2018-2019 season and has worked her way up to second in command. Orellana even got to coach Daniela Alvarez (who is #1 at TCU and played in the Paris Olympics, you'll hear more about her later) in the fall of 2019 for the FIVB (international beach volleyball) Quinzhou Open when Alvarez was an incoming freshman. Orellana has done more than just coach, she also played professional beach volleyball for her native country of Guatemala in the 2000's and 2010's and also played on their indoor national team from 1996-2008 but never made the Olympics. During the 2019 season, she even coached her sister, Mandi. As for the final coach, Lindsey, was the only one with no bio on TCU's page but just like the other two, he did play beach volleyball, and like Orellana, was on the AVP at one point. With information on him being so hard to find, if you find something on him, let me know down below.

    Let's look at Cal Poly's coaching staff. We start off with no doubt, the most popular coach of the 6 I'll be talking about today and a man I look for every year I go to the AVP Manhattan Beach Open, head coach Todd Rogers. There's also head assistant coach Angela Rock and assistant coach Mariah Whalen. Rogers started his head coaching career at Cal Poly in spring of 2016 and with them being ranked #6 in the national finals, I'd say he's done a great job. From the start of the 2018 season to the end of the 2024 season, his record is an impressive 152-31 while his starting season to the end of the 2024 season is at 175-116 for comparison. Why I want to meet Rogers has some to do with his coaching but more so his playing. in 1997 he started playing on the AVP and won rookie of the year that year as well as most valuable player in 2007 and most defensive player from 2004 all the way until 2008. The biggest reason you may have heard the name Todd Rogers is because of the Beijing Olympics in 2008 where he, and partner Phil Dahlhauser, won the gold medal for Team USA. I have met Dahlhauser and got a picture with him but I want to do the same with Rogers if given the chance, since he's one of the few Olympians I haven't met that I want to. The nickname for Rogers is 'the professor' which is a result of his ability to break down the game along with strategic approach and expertise in defensive positioning. I know it's hard to follow a man like that, but let's see what Angela Rock has accomplished. Rock just finished her second season at Cal Poly but has had a successful time with both seasons helping get the team to the national championships. She's coached at many different colleges including Florida State and Stanford since retiring from the sport after competing both indoor and on the beach from the mid 1980s to 2000 when she retired and started coaching. Rock's most famous moment came during her indoor volleyball career where she represented Team USA at the 1988 Seoul Olympics where she was an outside hitter. Whalen is our final coach from Cal Poly. After playing for them for 3 seasons, Whalen decided to be a coach after graduating. With being so young, she hasn't had time to accomplish much but that just means she's got plenty of time to accomplish just as much, if not more, than her fellow coaches of Rogers and Rock. There is one special position on Cal Poly's coaching support staff I'd like to mention and that's the Director of Player Morale and his name is Mr. Herc (short for Hercules) and he is a dog. Such a fitting position for him, don't you think?

     For those who don't know, NCAA and Professional Beach Volleyball have the winner determined a little differently. In both sports the pair who wins has to win 2 sets whether it be by winning both sets, first to 21 in this case, or by winning 2 of the 3 sets, with the first two sets playing to 21 and the third playing to 15, with all three requiring a lead of 2 points or more when the set is finished. In the pros once a pair win their two sets, they have won the game and move on in the bracket, but NCAA is a little different, just because you've won two of your sets doesn't always mean you've won the game. In order for your school to win in NCAA your school has to win at least 3 of the 5 games they have going on against the other school. By that I mean each time a school plays against each other, they have their top 5 pairs playing each other and in order to win your school has to have at least 3 of your pairs beating 3 pairs of your opponents. Now let's get into the second semifinal game of the 2025 NCAA National Championships to see who moves on the finals.

Here is TCU's gameday post on their Instagram for their second to last game of the season. Don't forget to follow them on that platform to see what they're up to this off season: @tcubeachvb

    

    As usual, let's start off with the first pair to finish. This was the 1's, or the top pair of each team, which had TCU's Daniela Alvarez and Tania Moreno against Cal Poly's Piper Ferch and Erin Inskeep. The first set ended 27-25 (remember that the two sets are played to 21 but you need a lead of two points or more) while the second set ends 21-12, both in favor of TCU and giving TCU a 1-0 lead over Cal Poly. The next game to finish was the 4's, or the fourth best pair of each team, which had TCU's Ana Vergara and Anhelina Khmil playing Cal Poly's Ella Connor and Madi Nichols. The first set ended 25-23 (remember that two-point lead rule) while the second set ended 21-18, both in favor of TCU and giving TCU a 2-0 lead over Cal Poly. The third game to finish was the 2's, or the second-best pair of each team, which had TCU's Hailey Hamlett and Maria Gonzalez against Cal Poly's Izzy Martinez and Logan Walter. Cal Poly won the first set 21-15 while TCU won the second set 21-17. The third set would end at 15-12 in favor of Cal Poly and giving Cal Poly one win while TCU had 2. The next game to finish was the 3's, or the third best pair, which had TCU's Allanis Navas and Sofia Izuzquiza against Cal Poly's Quinn Perry and Lindsey Sparks. The first set ended at 21-13 in favor of TCU while the second set ended at 21-18 in favor of Cal Poly and causing a third set. The third set ended at 15-13 in favor of TCU and causing TCU to beat Cal Poly 3-1 and moving on to the national finals. Let's take a look at the only game that didn't finsh, which was the 5's. The 5's, or the fifth best pair on each team, had TCU's Stacy Reeves and Denie Konstantinova against Cal Poly's Abbey Reinard and Elise Lenahan. The first set ended 21-14 in favor of TCU while the second set ended 21-18 in favor of Cal Poly. The third set got all the way to 13-11 in favor of TCU before the 3's finished their game. With that game being unfinished, do you think TCU would've won that last game or Cal Poly?

TCU with their 3-1 victory over Cal Poly

With TCU a confirmed winner, the finals are set. Don't forget to follow the NCAA to see what all of the teams are doing this off season: @ncaavolleyball

    That concludes today's game of #2 TCU taking on #6 Cal Poly for semifinal #2 to see who moves on to the 2025 NCAA Division 1 Beach Volleyball National Championship. Next week I will do my final blog of the 2025 season as I cover #2 TCU taking on #4 LMU for the finals to see who becomes the national champion. Stay tuned for that game and until next time, Miller out

~J. Miller