Madelina Myers-Osband was part of the first University of Tennessee at Chattanooga beach volleyball team to play a full schedule in 2021.
She understood the vision back then, and as her college career comes to a close, she and the rest of the Mocs are reaping the benefits.
Yeah, sure, the program is technically in its fifth season of existence, but in reality it’s year four for head coach Darin Van Horn’s Mocs because the 2020 season was limited to just three matches — all in one day of competition at the Mercer Bears Beach Bash on Feb. 29 that year — before the COVID-19 pandemic led to the cancellation of the season.
While the 2021 season was not called off by the pandemic, it was certainly affected by it. During the 2020-21 school year, the NCAA pushed indoor women’s volleyball from the fall to the spring, which cut into the numbers for UTC’s beach volleyball team. The outdoor Mocs had to forfeit a pair of matches early that season when they had only six players available for the sand.
Gylian Finch was on the 2020 team, while Myers-Osband and Paige Gallentine were part of the group that came a year later. Last week, all three were part of the group that earned the program’s first Ohio Valley Conference championship. UTC compete in the Southern Conference for most sports, but that league does not sponsor beach volleyball.