By Ray Cartwright
Frogs Today Staff Writer
The Sandy Frogs are dancing their way back to the NCAA Tournament.
TCU secured their place in the NCAA Tournament after winning the CCSA Conference Tournament over the weekend.
TCU was named a two seed in the upcoming NCAA Beach Volleyball Tournament that will take place May 5th through the 7th. The Frogs are set to take on Stetson in the first round. TCU faced Stetson earlier this season sweeping 5-0 in the North Florida Invite.
This is the second season in a row that the Frogs have secured the 2-seed.
“We got the number two, which is pretty good. It’s kind of what we thought after losing the head to head against UCLA,” coach Hector Gutierrez said. “We’re pretty happy, its been a great season, its a good spot for us.”
It’s been a season of bests for the Frogs.
The Frogs had their best regular season record this season with a record of 31-1 and they set a program best winning streak with a 29 match winning streak.
Now they just need to win four more.
TCU built a challenging schedule this season playing 12 of the 16 tournament teams.
If you talk Gutierrez, everyone is starting from scratch.
“Anything can happen, the regular season put us in a situation to get to the tournament with the highest seed that we can,” Gutierrez said. “That was the goal.”
The NCAA tweaked the tournament this year, instead of it being a double elimination like it has been in years past, it will be a single elimination.
This will mean TCU will have play their best for four games if they want to take home a National Title for the first time in program history.
The Frogs will lean on the dynamic duo of Daniela Alvarez and Tania Moreno, the pairing are 31-1 on the year in matches.
TCU will also need strong contributions from Rochelle Scott and Hailey Brockett. Gutierrez recently paired Sutton MacTavish and Hailey Hamlett and that’s paid off well for the Frogs. The duo are 6-1 since being paired together.
TCU’s match against Stetson is set for May 5th at 1 p.m. and can be seen on the ESPN family of networks.
