Small But Experienced Husky Squad Ready For 2022 Tests
UW Athletic Communications
3/10/2022
SEATTLE – The Beach Dawgs are travel-ready. After grinding and gritting through the fall and winter months, and starting the spring season off with two matches close to home in Tacoma, the Huskies are ready to begin the 2022 season in earnest with this weekend's first road trip to the Southern California. A new era of Husky Beach Volleyball is being established under first-year Head Coach Derek Olson, and Olson is looking for the Huskies to test themselves this weekend and throughout the dual match season, focusing on what they can control on their side of the net.
This weekend's first trip takes the Huskies to San Luis Obispo, Calif. for a tournament hosted by Cal Poly. The Huskies will start on Friday, Mar. 11, with matches against Loyola Marymount at 2:30 p.m. and then against Arizona State at 5:30 p.m. On Saturday, UW starts bright and early at 8 a.m. against San Jose State, and then faces the host Cal Poly Mustangs at 10:30 a.m.
The Huskies will be challenged right from the start as Loyola Marymount is ranked sixth in the latest AVCA poll and is 8-1 on the season. Cal Poly is also ranked 11th.
Says Olson, "When we go in and play these matches, our test is can we still maintain control over the things we can control. Ultimately can we stay engaged and focused, those are the things I’m looking at."
Olson became the fourth Head Coach in UW Beach Volleyball history after an extremely successful run as an assistant and acting head coach at California. As interim and acting head coach in 2020 and 2021, Olson led the Bears to a No. 9 final AVCA ranking in 2020 and a No. 11 final AVCA ranking in 2021 with five wins over Top-10 teams in those two years.
Starting in the fall, he began the process of getting to know the six returners from the 2021 squad, as well as welcoming in a transfer in Paloma Bowman. In the winter, the Huskies added in several players off the indoor roster to round out the roster of eleven.
“First thing was a lot of evaluating where we were at and seeing what pieces we had,” says Olson. “Really trying to figure out the athletes and who they are. They’ve really bought in on everything we’ve asked them to do, and tried to soak up as much as possible. It’s been a cool experience getting to work with them up to this point.”
Although the Huskies have a small roster, it is an experienced one, with six players heading into their third or fourth seasons of beach, and two more going into year two having started all of 2021.
“We have a really mature group, so I think they’re going to do pretty well in tough environments, with pressure on the road against top teams,” says Olson. “But they’ve gotten better every week. A great thing about a mature group like this is you can give them one or two focuses for the week, and you see the improvement by the end of the week, and they’re implementing things. So we’ve been able to make up a lot of ground from a tactical, technical standpoint. It’s been really fun to see everyone improve.”
The Dawgs officially opened up two weeks ago with a double-header against Portland at the DaKine Volleyball Club down in University Place, Wash. The Huskies had a 5-0 win followed by a 4-1 win and finally got to problem solve a bit against new opposition after going against themselves week after week.
“Playing against Portland got us thinking a little bit more, but we’re really just focused on our side,” says Olson. “We’re not worried about who we’re playing and what their strengths and weaknesses are. We’ll figure that out as we go. We’re doubling down on our side and how we’re going to get better and how we’re going to create synergy on the court in our partnerships.”
Against Portland, UW went with a No. 1 pair that is one of its most experienced: Chloe Loreen and Natalie Robinson. Loreen was one half of an outstanding No. 1 duo last year with Shayne McPherson, as the two went a team-best 13-5 in dual play. Robinson was a strong No. 2 with Avie Niece a year ago, and is the leader of the team in many ways, according to Olson.
“Natalie is a leader. She’s somebody I can trust and lean on to get things done on and off the court. She’s curious. She learns a ton through asking questions and doing stuff on her own. She’s gotten a lot better in making fewer errors and understanding the higher-percentage plays. In the last month she’s really taken off, so her and Chloe are in a really good place right now.”
Olson calls Loreen one of the most unique athletes he's ever coached, saying she can do things “I literally haven’t seen before. She has a really crazy, unreadable wrist. She’s very athletic, jumps high, has really good hand-eye coordination, so I think she’s going to be a problem for a lot of teams playing against her. But Chloe is an even better person. She’s all-in on what we’re trying to do here. She’s somebody that has really limited her errors and is starting to see the game in terms of high-percentage plays. So I think she’s going to surprise a lot of people, and she’s already been great here, but I think she’s going to take that next step.”
A trio of returning starters from last season includes Ashley Shook, Hannah Yerex, and Kyra Petersen. All three have plenty of match experience, all three are improving, and all three find additional unique ways to contribute to the program.
"All three of them have gotten so much better since I’ve been here. Ashley is way more physical than I saw her in the fall. Kyra is making really good plays attacking, and Hannah in the last couple weeks has taken off and become a new player and is way more confident," Olson says. “What’s unique about all of them is they’ve all taken up different roles off the court. Kyra is doing a lot of video and social media, Ashley is doing operations stuff, and Hannah is doing a lot of stats and creating Google Sheets and stuff like that for us, and they just do it because they love it.”
Scarlett Dahl heads into her third season and Olson expects her to be a major factor once again. “Consistency” is what he thinks of when describing the Seattle native.
“Scarlett really impressed me in the fall and has honestly never let me down,” he says. “She’s got the highest motor on the team. She hustles on every single play, all the time. She burns more calories than anybody out there, and she has never put an ounce of negative energy on the court. She leads by example.”
The one beach-only newcomer this year is Paloma Bowman, an experienced beach and indoor player who was an All-Conference First Teamer at UC Davis, and spent last year playing indoor at Portland. Bowman missed the first matches at Portland but figures to be a big contributor.
"I’ve known Paloma for a little while because we played against her when she was at UC Davis," says Olson. “She’s a really good player and kind of unassuming. She has a really good arm swing, has good control of the ball, and is instinctive offensively and defensively making the right play. So I think she’s going to have some huge wins for us this year.”
Four members of the Pac-12 Champion indoor squad are diving into the sand this spring. Emma Calle has three years of beach play in her bio, having only missed the 2021 season, but Maeve Griffin, Olivia Mikkelsen, and Audra Wilmes are either redshirt or true freshmen to the collegiate beach game.
“They don’t bring a lot of college beach experience, but they still bring a ton of really good volleyball knowledge and skills. A lot of the stuff they learn on the indoor side is carrying over, for example serving tough and leaning into that aspect of the game has really translated,” says Olson.
“Emma’s been really consistent. I think Maeve is finding her groove a little bit. Bibs (Mikkelsen) is an amazing kid and she’s just learning the game. Audra I think is going to be something special. She’s just got natural ability. It always takes time to be a good beach player when you’re already a good indoor player, but she’s going to be somebody that’s pretty special.”
The Dawgs launch into a month's worth of matches tomorrow and will be in mid-season form when they host the one home tournament of the season, at Alki Beach on Apr. 16-17.