TCU Releases 2017 Beach Schedule
2/3/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Beach Volleyball
FORT WORTH, Texas -- The TCU Beach Volleyball team will face seven teams that finished in the top 10 last season, including Pepperdine, the national runner-up, Florida State and Hawaii, who all finished in the top five, in the upcoming 2017 season, as announced by first-year TCU Beach coach Hector Gutierrez.
In all, the Horned Frogs will play 26 regular-season matches. TCU will make two trips to California, and one trip each to Arizona, Louisiana and Florida. They will also make one road trip in Texas to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
"We're going to California because we are going to be playing good schools there and it will give us a good idea of where we stand with other schools like Long Beach, Stanford and Cal Poly," said Gutierrez said.
TCU fans will have the opportunity to see the Horned Frogs on their home court twice with the first coming Feb. 25 with the annual Purple & White Scrimmage beginning at 9 a.m. Their only home regular-season tournament of the season is March 24-25.
Following the Purple and White scrimmage, the Horned Frogs open the season March 3-4 at the Grand Canyon Tournament in Phoenix where they will meet Loyola Marymount and Colorado Mesa on the first day and then close it out the following day with host Grand Canyon.
TCU will make its first visit to California March 14 for the first of eight straight matches in the Sunshine State beginning at Long Beach State. On March 16, the Horned Frogs will be at Pismo Beach in San Luis Obispo where they will take on Cal Poly and Benedictine.
Two days later, TCU will open play at the Pepperdine Tournament with matches against Arizona State, Cal State Los Angeles and Pepperdine, who fell to USC in the NCAA title match last year.
Following the eight matches in California, the Horned Frogs will make their only regular-season appearance in Fort Worth March 24-25 in the Horned Frog Challenge. The Frogs will host Arizona State at 10 a.m. and Arizona State and LSU will play at 12:15 p.m. TCU will close out the first day of the tournament with LSU at 5 p.m.
On Day Two March 25, Arizona and LSU will play at 9 a.m. before TCU closes out with Arizona at 11:15 a.m. ASU and LSU will round out the tournament with a match at 1:30 p.m.
"Our home tournament will be good with the two schools from Arizona along with LSU. It's going to be a competitive tournament, and that's what we're looking for," Gutierrez said.
The Horned Frogs head back to California March 26 for the Irvine Valley College Tournament where they will meet Stanford, Hawaii and Irvine Valley College.
The Horned Frog will close out the month of March at the ULM Bayou Beach Bash in Monroe, Louisiana. The two-day event begins March 31 with matches with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Houston Baptist. On April 1, the Horned Frogs meet Central Arkansas and ULM.
TCU will make its only appearance in Florida when it travels to the Florida State Tournament in Tallahassee, where the Horned Frogs will open play April 7 against Georgia State, Florida International and host Florida State. On April 8, the Horned Frogs will play Florida Atlantic and South Carolina.
The Horned Frogs close out the regular season April 22 at the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Tournament where they will match up with Texas A&M-Kingsville and host TAMU-CC.
The NCAA Championships are slated for May 5-7 in Gulf Shores, Alabama.
