KINGSVILLE, Texas – One year after becoming the first women's program in school history to capture a national title, the Texas A&M-Kingsville beach volleyball team will return to Tavares, Fla. to defend their crown at the American Volleyball Coaches Association Small College Beach Championships, which will be held Friday through Sunday at the Hickory Point Beach Sand Volleyball Complex.
The Javelinas will be entering the tournament as the top seed in the 12-team field. The action begins with pool play on Friday and for TAMUK, that means matches against seventh-seeded Stevenson at 8 a.m. and 12th-seeded Eckerd at noon before they close out the day by taking on the No. 6 seed, Saint Leo, at 3 p.m.
Each team's performance on Friday will determine their seeding for Saturday's challenge play, during which each squad will play three more times. The teams will then be re-seeded once more into either the bronze, silver or gold bracket. The four teams in the gold bracket will have the chance to play for the AVCA National Championship.
"I think they're prepared," said coach Tanya Allen. "We've been pretty excited about this. We're working on scouting reports and our final touches, but I think at this point, its just a matter of letting them go and letting them do their thing."
TAMUK finished their regular season with a stretch that saw them play 12 of 14 matches against Division I competition and post an 8-6 record over that period, pushing the team's overall mark to 13-12.
The tandem that has thrived the most during the recent gauntlet run by the Javelinas has been that of senior Madison Brabham (Kingwood, Texas) and Kylexus Block (San Antonio, Texas). They've won eight of their last 10 matches and swept pairings from No. 4 LSU and No. 20 TCU along the way. They own a record of 15-5 since being moved to the second flight early in the season.
The third and fifth flights have also been consistent sources of wins for TAMUK this season. Senior Haley Hutchinson (Georgetown, Texas) and sophomore Macy Berg (San Antonio, Texas) have combined for a team-high 17 wins at No. 3. Freshmen Christina Gragasin (Celina, Texas) and Nicole Murff (San Antonio, Texas) are 13-3 together and their eight-match win streak in March is the longest by any Javelina pairing this season.
"At this point, we know the chemistry between the players," said Allen. "That's something that's incredibly important. We try to pair up beach experience with athleticism. The biggest thing was trying to find out how we could push [the players] physically and keep the knowledge base sound."
Of the 11 teams vying for TAMUK's crown, the Javelinas have previously encountered two of them, defeating Carson-Newman and Florida Southern in early March at the C of C Beach Bash. Florida Southern will be the No. 5 seed and Carson-Newman has been placed 11th.
No. 2 Spring Hill and third-seeded Tampa are both squads that the Javelinas met in 2018, but a potential meeting in Tavares would be the first between these schools in 2019. Spring Hill has compiled a record of 14-8 and that includes a mark of 5-3 against teams that have also played the Javelinas. The Tampa Spartans will enter the weekend at 13-10 and they are 3-1 in April, thanks to two wins over Saint Leo and one over Florida Southern.
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