Beach Birds take to the sand on Thursday in Pool play of NJCAA Beach Volleyball Championship

Tuesday April 30, 2024 - 1:20  p.m. | Dylan DeVlieger

Mesa Beach Volleyball opens play at the 2024 NJCAA Beach Volleyball Championship in Huntsville, AL on Thursday.

The Lady T-Birds come into the event with a 13-11 overall record. This season has been different for Mesa compared to years past as they had no conference opponent to play with South Mountain cutting their beach program before the season. 

Though that meant the Lady T-Birds would be the automatic Region I champion the adjustment would lead MCC to look far and wide for opportunities to compete against other programs which was not easy. Head coach Jordan Herrington does believe the loss of the Cougars had a significant impact on their season and preparation for the championship. 

"Losing an opponent like South Mountain was tough. They were a school with a similar budget, recruiting guidelines, scheduling budgets, losing them really hurt," said Herrington.

Looking at the T-Bird wins and losses it seems difficult to gauge the ability of the team against their opponents, partly because Mesa has not consistently faced traditional two year schools like they will in the tournament. Another reason was due to the changing of pairings through the season. 

Mesa was competitive in most matches this year, however it was the close matches that stung the T-Birds at times, losing four of their seven matches where the final score was 3-2.

"In a lot of those games we were trying out new pairing, those have changed a lot this year which is out of the ordinary for my coaching style," said Herrington, "I like to establish pairings early. We just have a lot of different possibilities and areas where we can get stronger in certain pairs."

MCC has had 10 different pairs this year which can either find you striking lightning in a bottle or setting back the players confidence.

However the pairings shake out, Mesa will have their hands full as they are the No. 6 seed in the field of nine teams from across the country.  The T-Birds are in Pool 1 and will have their work cut out for them as they share the pool with defending champion and No. 1 seeded Palm Beach State College and No. 7 seed Gaston College. 

Herrington and company are confident their season of playing competition like they did in the regular season will pay off as they feel that their play is on par just their experience set them back a bit.

"I'm really confident in our ability and skill level, it's just the lack of experience that has gotten us to where we are right now," said Herrington.

Experience is one thing Mesa did lack at the start of the season, with most of the team playing their first season of beach volleyball the T-Birds had an uphill battle from the jump. Throughout the season Herrington did see tremendous growth in two individuals that are typical middles when it comes to indoor volleyball. 

 "Brynlee Barris, she has had no club experience and her highest level of play has been at MCC, we have trickled her down at beach where she started at our four's position and now she is in our one's and two's position. She's now developing shots because she has to," said Herrington, " Izabel Wagner is one of our middles as well, she's not in my top pairs right now and she has dealt with some injury, but to see her game develop is great."

When Mesa takes to the sand on Thursday it will be the first time they've lined up against an opponent that wasn't sporting an MCC jersey since April 9. The only thing Herrington can do is simulate real gameplay in practice while challenging her team with uncomfortable situations to keep them sharp.

"I think a lot of things we do at practice help with that, we're trying to hone in the skills we're trying to perfect.  This last week we've been doing nothing but shots the girls are uncomfortable with and putting them in game play situations," said Herrington.

When it comes down to it, Herrington has prepared her team to go up against the best of the best, but adjustments in real time will have to be made. Mesa knows their play has been good enough to get them to this point but they will still need to adjust on the fly based on their opponent and situation.

"The biggest thing is small changes. We can't go there and expect to jump six inches higher. It's small changes within the boundaries of the line," said Herrington, "figuring out early who were going to target in serve receive or defense or what our game plan is going to be is something we have to develop as we're going."

Mesa will open pool play on Thursday with two matches as they take on No. 7 Gaston College at 9:30 a.m. local time and No. 1 Palm Beach State College at 1:15 p.m.

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