Photo of the 2024 UMHB Beach Volleyball team at the AVCA Small College nationals courtesy of the AVCA/avca.org
BELTON—Building a program from the ground up comes with natural challenges. Establishing a recruiting base, scheduling, and development all come with time and no shortage of serious effort. UMHB head beach volleyball coach Mark Pryor can attest to that fact.
But what makes Pryor’s squad in Belton so notable is the fact that the span of time from the first match in program history—a 3-2 win over Missouri Baptist on March 25, 2022—to The Cru’s first national title was just three seasons.
“It was satisfying, but I think the thing I enjoyed most was seeing the kids’ joy on their faces, and especially those kids who were there at the beginning,” Pryor said last week.
“To see how much better they got, and how much they enjoyed being good. How much they enjoyed that process from being really new and playing against a lot of teams we had no business playing against in that first year to last year, being competitive but not really knowing how good we could be. [Then] to this year, with every match, going in knowing we have a chance to win. That was really great to see that final point [of the championship match] culminate, and think, ‘Wow, they accomplished what they set out to do.’”
UMHB took down Berry, 3-0, in the AVCA DIII Small College Invitational championship on April 14, capping a 26-4 campaign that saw The Cru go undefeated against D-III and NAIA opponents. Not to mention wins over D-I Nicholls State and Southwest Baptist. It was more than impressive. It was historic.
C H A M P S 🕶️ pic.twitter.com/q2ajJmz7Bn
— UMHB Crusaders (@CruSports) April 14, 2024
For the first time in program history, UMHB won 20+ matches. The Crusaders saw countless hours of work pay off, not just at the AVCA Tournament in Tavares, Florida, but week in and week out throughout the spring at tournaments in Thibodaux, Louisiana, Montgomery, Alabama, Kingsville, Texas, and Belton.
“I think it was gratifying for them to just understand that if you work really hard, it doesn’t guarantee success, but it puts you in a really great position where you have the opportunity to do so.”
Even more so for the team’s four juniors—Aliana Rojas, Gracie Nichols, Cami Davis, and Shelby Broekhuizen—who saw the program through its three years of transformation. They were on the roster when it was a fledgling first-year program, the first D-III program in the Lone Star State. They contributed to the strides made a year ago, when UMHB made its first appearance at the AVCA Tournament. And they saw it through to 2024, blazing through the regular season with ample success before finishing as the best Division III program.
“To go from Year 1 to Year 3, it was really nice for them to see that culmination of inception to championship,” Pryor said.
The build-up to the 2024 season included a strong few months of fall workouts, he added. The preseason development helped maximize The Cru’s potential once the season opener rolled around.
“We had a really good fall training session. We really changed some things with how we were working in the weight room, with some conditioning, explosion and agility. So going into the season, we felt like we had modeled it a little differently, and I think that ended up helping us out once the season got started.”
That aspect was evident, as UMHB opened its season with consecutive 5-0 wins over Huntingdon and Loyola-New Orleans in Montgomery, Alabama. And even as the Crusaders pressed further on into the schedule, facing stiffer competition, the 4-1 and 5-0 victories continued to come. In fact, The Cru headed east to Florida for the DIII invitational tournament having won 16 of its last 17 matches, and seeded No. 1.
The completion of the quest for the program’s first AVCA title came in the form of four straight matches, won by results of 3-0, 3-1, 3-1, and 3-0. Nobody came close to knocking off The Cru.
The success of UMHB beach volleyball has drawn the attention of those beyond the Crusader community, with athletic directors and other administrators reaching out to find out how to get programs up and off the ground at their institutions. As Pryor put it, The Cru is “trailblazing” when it comes to building a successful beach program at the D-III level.
“When we’ve got athletic directors calling and asking, ‘How did you guys begin this? How did you get this rolling?’ And you’ve got other programs going, ‘Wait a minute, this is a really neat concept.’ We were really on the ground floor of beginning this at the Division III level, where we’ve got other programs that are already talking about starting within the next year to two years. It’s going to grow opportunities for kids to be able to compete.”
It was with that in mind that UMHB started its program in 2022. It was a way to give more student-athletes the opportunity to represent The Cru in athletics, while simultaneously continuing to build an ever-evolving athletics department that has seen success across the board year after year.
“We just thought, how can we add value to the university? How can we add more opportunities for kids to have a great education and experience and put a product on the floor that people are going to want to see?,” Pryor, who has also served as UMHB head indoor volleyball coach since 2019, recalled. ”You look at a lot of our home matches, and it’s packed. it’s tough to see, because we’ve got so many people showing up. We’re providing a great opportunity just for the kids to have another venue to be involved in things at UMHB.”
So where does UMHB go from here? One thing is clear, the pursuit to improve will not wane as The Cru comes off its first national championship. Pryor’s goal is to strengthen the 2025 schedule, and rather than seeking to simply boost a winning percentage, he wants to see his squad challenged even more from the get-go.
“I think we have to probably make the schedule a little bit harder,” Pryor said. “We’re grateful for all of those NAIA schools that came in and played early on. But we might need to frontload that schedule with a few more of those elite Division IIs, some of the more developmental Division Is, that can challenge us physically. So that way, win or loss, we’re going to be more prepared for that national championship next year.”
2024 proved to be memorable for the program, with a huge step forward. The celebration that came moments after recording the final point against Berry in the championship final was the result of not just months, but years of hard work.
“We’ve really talked this year about, ‘Let’s enjoy this experience. Let’s enjoy getting a chance to play. Let’s enjoy getting a chance to compete,’” Pryor noted. “And let’s enjoy creating a program of our own, where we can make history. And it’s not just with the wins and losses, but with how the kids treat each other. With the way that we’re representing the university.”
