More collegiate beach odds and ends

So on Monday CSTV.com makes you navigate to the lame Collegiate Nationals website where we finally get a rundown of the tournament. The story really only covers the finals in any kind of depth, but it's better than nothing. The pictures are still from last year, and the video gallery is "Coming Soon!"

Yeah, whenever "soon" is, I'll probably have moved on to stamp collecting or something.

As it turns out, Texas was this close to getting into the semis, but lost out by points to Nebraska. In fact, Texas was the only team to beat Nebraska in a 15-13, 16-18, 23-21 barn-burner.

And we got this fun quote from Pavan:

"It was nice and warm at the beach, but I didn't get to hang out with the cows as much as I do at home."

You know, every time I think I want to visit Canada, someone says something like this, and I lose the urge.

Then there's this quote from Florida's Angie McGinnis:

“You could definitely tell who had played on the beach before and who hadn’t,” McGinnis said.

Lookin' at you, Minnesota and Penn State.

"But for having not played 2-on-2 on the beach before and having only a few practices, I think Marcie and I did really well."

OK, looking at McGinnis, too...and Hampton.

Oh, and FYI, USAVolleyball.org lists the original seeds for the tournament as the order of finish:


Whoops.

UPDATE: The offending wrong order of finish has been removed from the page. Apparently the final order of finish remains a mystery...

McGinnis / Hampton odds just went out the window

We're already on record saying that we think the San Diego duo of Jaimarie Sutherland and Andrea Csaszi are a good bet for the Collegiate Volleyball Championship coming up in San Diego, along with Texas' Ashley Engle and Alyson Jennings.

But since the pairings were announced (and amended with the dropping of players-without-a-country team of Salvo and Anderson), we've been trying to handicap the tourney by analyzing the teams. We think we just got a big hint on Florida's entry.

According to an article on Gainesville.com, Hampton, the outside hitter par excellence, "has never played beach volleyball," while McGinnis, setter superb, has "played beach volleyball sparingly at her family's Michigan cottage."

20:1 odds, right now.

"Just running in general is hard," McGinnis said. "There's also only one person to block. That makes it tough. And you can't go after every ball in the sand. You'll get exhausted. You have to let some fall."

Make that 30:1.

Plus, McGinnis' boyfriend, a military man she doesn't get to see very often, is stationed in San Diego. That kind of distraction can be CRIPPLING!