Non-Rev Roundup: Beach Volleyball and Tennis continue to dominate

Chances are, if you read Frogs O’ War, you’ve been keeping up with the majority of major events happening within TCU athletics. Basketball coming to a close, baseball in full swing, but what about those other sports that may not get as much media coverage?

Even wonder what’s going on with the golf team? Or maybe just curious as to how dominant TCU athletics is outside of their moneymakers like football and basketball? Well, now you don’t have to!

We’re rolling out this “Non-rev roundup” as a weekly piece to catch Frog fans up on what’s been going on with some of the smaller, but equally as important programs on campus.

Without further adieu:

Spiking the competition

If you haven’t heard by now, the Women’s Beach Volleyball team is on absolute FIRE. This group, highlighted by 5th ranked duo Daniela Alvarez/Tania Moreno Mateeva, had the best start in CCSA history with a 28-0 record.

Sadly, their dominant run came to an end this past weekend falling 4-1 to then-No. 3 USC, but regardless the Frogs still dominated in their last outing at the Mapes Beach Invitational & UCLA invitational, where they beat the hosts.

The Frogs’ lone loss of the season is overshadowed by HUGE wins against No. 1 UCLA (twice), No. 5 Loyola Marymount, and No. 9 Hawaii.

These recent wins add to the Frogs’ already impressive resume now for a total of 15 top 20 wins on the year, 5 of those being against top 5 teams.

Now ranked No. 2 with a 28-1 record, the Beach Volleyball team will look to continue their dominance in Tallahassee, Florida where they’ll compete in the Unconquered Invitational.

Serving up some Ws

After being crowned 2022 ITA Indoor National Champions, this squad has continued their excellent form and remains the No. 1 ranked team in the country.

Since beating four top-15 opponents to secure the program’s first championship, the Frogs have posted a 7-2 record including four wins over top-45 opponents (Baylor, Texas Tech, SMU, UCLA).

One of the two recent losses came by way of a familiar foe, Baylor, but the Frogs avenged themselves with a 4-3 win over the Bears this past weekend. The bounce-back win was highlighted by a standout performance from sophomore Jake Fearnley.

The Scotland native was named the Big 12 player of the week after having big days against both Texas Tech and Baylor, helping the Frogs open Big 12 Conference play with a 2-0 record. He finished the weekend with double wins in both competitions paired with Luc Fomba, giving the duo a perfect 7-0 record on the year against ranked duos.

In singles play, Fearnley would beat Baylor’s Finn Bass in consecutive sets to conclude a perfect 3-0 weekend for the sophomore.

The Horned Frog tennis team has a massive match coming up. Their final home match of the season takes place this Saturday against No. 3 Texas.

PUTTing the season to a close

There will be more to come on the golf teams as the Big 12 tournament is set to begin later this month (April 25-27), but the Frogs recently closed out the regular season over the weekend.

Competing in the Wyoming Invitational, the Frogs finished 19th out of 25 teams competing with 865 total strokes, just 1-over par for the weekend. Aymeric Laussot was the Frogs’ top finisher for the second consecutive tournament after shooting 3-under 213. Right behind Laussot was Filippo Celli, who finished the tournament shooting 1-over 217.

As for the women’s golf team, they are sitting pretty at No. 28 in the country with two regular-season tournaments remaining before the Big 12 tourney, one of which is going on right now.

The Frogs are competing in the Silverado Invitational in Napa, California where after round 2, they’re in 12th place out of a 16-team field. Now I know 12th may not seem all that glamorous, but this 16-team field includes 11 of the top 40 teams nationally.

Standout freshman Caitly Macnab is leading the way for the Frogs right now after shooting a 4-under 68 in round 2 yesterday. She’s currently tied for 3rd individually at 2-under 142, just five strokes behind the leader.

Fun little side note: Macnab made the cut and will be competing in the final round of the 2022 Augusta National Women’s Amateur.

The Women’s golf team will compete in “The Bruzzy” next week to close out the regular season before the Big 12 tourney gets underway April 22-24.

RIFLE. SCHOOL.

In all seriousness, this TCU Rifle team deserves more attention. This group successfully defended their title this season and has now brought home FOUR national championships to the Fort.

Led by head coach Karen Monez, the Frogs have been dominant all year proven by their abundant amount of postseason honors.

Four TCU Rifle members - Stephanie Grundsoee, Kristen Hemphill, Anne White, Stephanie Allan - combined for NINE All-American honors this year.

Grundsoee was a unanimous first-team All American for the third consecutive season while Hemphill earned second-team honors in air rifle and aggregate and third-team honors in smallbore. White finished with a second-team rifle nod, not too shabby for the freshmen. And last but certainly not least Allan earned a first-team rifle nod and honorable mention in smallbore.

Although the season is complete, and finished in quite literally the best way possible, there is still more to look forward to with this team.

The Frogs recently announced the signing of Julie Johannessen, a Norway native that has competed at high levels such as the 2020 European Junior Championship Finals. Johannessen will be joining Katie Zaun and Mikole Hogan as freshmen next fall.

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming

The swimming and diving team’s season recently came to a close as Janis Silins, David Ekdahl, and Alec Hubbard represented the Horned Frogs at the men’s NCAA Championships in Atlanta, Georgia.

At nationals, Hubbard made his championship debut on platform and finished 37th in prelims with a score of 276.60. The freshmen ended the year with a Big 12 bronze medal on platform, a platform school record, and an NCAA championship appearance. Not too shabby.

Fellow freshmen and fellow diver David Ekdahl finished 24th overall with a score of 353.30. This accolade adds to his already successful season including a school record in the Big 12 Championship 1-meter dive.

Janis Silins was the lone swimmer to represent the Frogs at nationals, and the junior finished 40th overall in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 1:55.73, just barely short of his personal best record of 1:54.05 in the same event.