LONG BEACH, Calif. – Daryana Hall was one of two student-athletes chosen from the Big West to take part in the NCAA Student-Athlete Leadership Forum, a program designed by the NCAA to help further develop leadership skills, focusing on their values, strengths and leadership philosophy which will then translate to their athletic and academic responsibilities.
 
“I’m very excited and grateful to have the opportunity to represent the big west as well as Long Beach State at the NCAA Student-Athlete Leadership Forum,” said Hall. “I’m looking forward to developing my leadership skills professionally and athletically. This forum will give me the opportunity to learn more about the inner workings of NCAA and create new connections with individuals from other institutions and conferences. The knowledge I gain from this experience will help me become a better leader on campus.”
 
Hall has been the president of the Long Beach State Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) for the last two years and has been very involved in campus leadership and volunteer efforts in addition to her success on the track as a sprinter. Actively involved in both SAAC and the Student-Athlete Leadership Council, she has helped build a connection with campus student government. Hall attended both the Leadership at the Beach Conference as well as the 2025 Black Student Athlete Summit and was the student liaison for a mental health panel presented by Long Beach State Sports Medicine. She’ll be joined by the conference’s male representative, Tate Meaux of UC Santa Barbara Track and Field.
 
The NCAA Student-Athlete Leadership Forum provides a diverse and dynamic representation of student-athletes, coaches, and administrators with a transformational opportunity to build a leadership toolkit and develop vital self-awareness that allows them to realize their potential. Participants leave the program with invaluable leadership skills, the experience of exploring the relationship between personal values, core beliefs and behavioral styles, and an understanding of the NCAA as a whole, the different divisional perspectives and the valuable role of Student-Athlete Advisory Committees (SAAC). The Student-Athlete Leadership Forum also creates a close personal support network of like-minded peers to provide continued connection and dialogue after the program concludes.
 
Sponsored by the NCAA, the forum will take place over the course of four days in November in Dallas. 
 

FORT WORTH – TCU women’s rifle head coach Karen Monez has announced the 2025-26 schedule which features five home matches.
 
The Horned Frogs will kick off the season on Sept. 27 at Navy with a triangular match against the Midshipmen and VMI. It’ll mark the fifth consecutive year that TCU has opened the season in Annapolis, Md.
 
TCU will shoot three road matches in October starting with a tilt at NCAA Championship qualifier Georgia Southern on Oct. 2. TCU will head to UTEP on Oct. 18 and wrap up the road swing on Oct. 26 at the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. against Alaska and Georgia Southern.
 
Two of the three November matches will take place at the TCU Rifle Range. The home opener is slated for Nov. 1 against Nebraska. The Frogs will head to Fort Wayne, Ind. to take on West Virginia at The X Count Range. The fall campaign concludes with a home match against Ole Miss on Nov. 16.
 
The spring campaign kicks off with a pair of matches on Jan. 18-19 at the TCU Rifle Range. The Frogs will host Ohio State and Schreiner University. Ohio State will stay in town for a second match the next day.
 
TCU will head to Alaska for a pair of matches Jan. 24-25. The Frogs will shoot in a triangular match against the Nanooks and UT Martin at the Tanana Valley Range before closing out the trip with a dual against UT Martin at the Alaska Fairbanks range.
 
The Horned Frogs will gear up for the postseason as it looks to seek its eighth Patriot Rifle Conference Championship Feb. 7-8 in Oxford, Miss. 
 
TCU will head back to Colorado Springs, Colo. to take on Air Force in the NCAA qualifier on Feb. 21 to close out the regular season.
 
The Horned Frogs will be seeking their 20th straight appearance in the National Championship match. The championships will be held in Columbus, Ohio. March 13-14.
 

Carpinteria boys water polo will host its annual alumni game on Saturday, Aug. 16 at Carpinteria Community Pool. 

The annual event pits this year’s varsity squad against the All-Time Alumni, and all past Warriors water polo players are invited to attend and participate.

Warm-ups begin at 4 p.m. The match is scheduled to start between 4:30 p.m. and 4:45 p.m. All Carpinteria graduates and community members are welcome to cheer on the current and former water polo players.

Noah Beveridge, a 2018 Butler High graduate, was hired this week as an assistant coach for Southern Methodist University’s cross country and track programs.

Beveridge excelled in both sports for the Golden Tornado, running then-school record times of 9:07.26 in the 3,200-meter run and 4:12.58 in the 1,600. He went on to star at Syracuse University.

SMU is located in Dallas. The Mustangs compete in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

“Noah’s dedication to both individual and team success, coupled with his passion for distance running, makes him an ideal fit for our program,” SMU head coach ‘A Havahla Haynes said in a news release. “We’re thrilled to welcome someone of his caliber as we enter our second year in the ACC.”

For over an hour after the start time of 9am, organizers from the Maroon Belles Volleyball Club delayed its first-ever Carbondale Open, intended to be an annual tournament, checking and rechecking wind forecasts and air quality numbers. At 7am, as they set up nets, the numbers were moderate, but by 8am, they worsened. Then at 10am, the air improved. Surrounding hillsides hove into view. 

For a summer event, you might expect to manage issues of rain and wind, maybe lightning. The Aug. 9 youth outdoor volleyball tournament at Miners Park contended with heavy wildfire smoke.

At 10:15am, the organizer, Laird Little, gave the assembled girls and parents the choice: “If anyone does not want to play or isn’t comfortable playing, we’ll refund your entry fee” ($20 per team), he said. “Come and see me.”

No one dropped. At 10:30am, the tourney proceeded, with shortened rounds. 

Eleven teams, with 22 girls, had registered for age group 14U, and three teams with six girls for 16U, for a total of 28 at this inaugural event. The nonprofit Maroon Belles Volleyball Club (maroonbelles.com), established in 2019, has been an indoor girls’ volleyball program, with six-person practices and tournaments in winter and spring. This summer, the club launched a program for learning the outdoor game, with doubles in sand and on grass, for girls ages 12 to 20 (enrollees were 12 to 17) from Aspen to Glenwood Springs. The fee was $220 a player for the season.

The initiative took off. “The first practice, 30 girls showed up,” said Little, a Maroon Belles director. Practices, beginning in June, were not mandatory, but each drew 20 to 30 girls. 

“I’ve been wanting to play beach,” said Macy Swann, 16, of Glenwood Springs, at the tourney. “A lot of my friends did, for United [Volleyball Club] so I wanted to try it, and it’s been really fun.”

She and her partner, Kaia Devine, also 16 and from Glenwood, were part of the new program. “I like our team, and I like all the girls,” Kaia said, adding that she’d return. 

An exceptionally positive vibe marked the tourney. Throughout a hot day, with temps into the 80s, girls were heard to tell each other after errors, “that’s okay” or “my bad.” They might say to an opponent, “Nice one.” 

“Hey, I’m happy with second,” Chloe Cherry, 14, of Glenwood Springs, told her partner, Emma Ragan, 15, of Edwards, in the championship round where the two “played up” from their age group. Autumn Sherwin and Andrea Lee, 16, of Aspen, prevailed. 

“Good game,” Emma told them as it ended.

Shelby Little (Laird’s daughter), an event volunteer and University of Colorado Law School student who has coached club volleyball for two seasons (one with the Maroon Belles), said, “We’re pretty excited about the turnout. It’s just fun to grow the game and give girls the opportunity to play year-round.”

The event format was doubles on both sand and grass courts for age groups 18U (none attended) 16U, and 14U. The tournament was open to boys as well, and two teams signed up, though neither arrived. 

Shelby kept results, and other volunteers put up canopies and brought coolers of drinks. Two 15-year-old boys, Matteo Ritschard and Sawyer Ivansco, strolled by and offered to be DJs, producing hours of tunes.

The beach program has operated in partnership with the Town of Carbondale and Eric Brendlinger, Parks and Rec director. He and Laird, former volleyball teammates at the MotherLode Volleyball Classic in Aspen, have been working to upgrade the courts in Miners Park. The Town has put in new net brackets, boundary lines and safety pads. Girls in the program helped sift the river sand placed there years ago, last week filling five five-gallon buckets (Laird and Shelby loaded up four more) with abrasive gravel fragments; the gravel is being used to shore up the ground at the in-town cemetery. The current sand also contains clay that creates dust, which floated up around the girls’ feet and knees, and Brendlinger has requested that the Town replace it with washed sand, potentially taking the old sand (400 tons) to the rodeo for use.

Laird earlier this summer arranged for a pro, Kris Bredehoft, to come teach a skills clinic, paying her with two ski lift tickets he got from bootpacking at Aspen Highlands.

Two or three teams from the Maroon Belles Beach Program will be able to compete in the MotherLode (where Shelby, too, has played, four times) on Labor Day weekend. 

Participants on scene came from high schools including Aspen, Glenwood Springs, Roaring Fork, Basalt and Battle Mountain. Brian Arbuckle, another Maroon Belles director, said, “It was great seeing players from every town in the Valley in a fun and competitive event.”

Results: 14U: 1. Samantha Avalos, New Castle, and Lily Mondragon, Canyon Creek. 2. Ashlyn Sherwin and Hannah Lee, Aspen. 3. Alexis Meisel and Sylvie Leeds, Basalt. 16U: 1. Autumn Sherwin and Andrea Lee, Aspen. 2. Chloe Cherry, Glenwood Springs, and Emma Ragan, Edwards. 3. Macy Swann and Kaia Devine, Glenwood Springs.

Seven Frontier schools were listed in the 2025 NAIA Women’s Volleyball Coaches’ Preseason Top 25 national poll, a record for the conference. Four programs are listed in the top 17, with three schools receiving votes.

Bellevue came in at No. 2, and with 44 consecutive appearances in the preseason poll prior to Wednesday’s, the Bruins make it into the top five programs with active rating streaks.

Providence, at No. 10, Montana Western, at No. 11, and Montana Tech at No. 17 round out the top 17 schools in the preseason poll. All three made it to the NAIA tournament last season, with the Argos being the defending regular season and Frontier Conference champs. The Bulldogs made the deepest run at the NAIA stage, eventually falling out in the quarterfinal match, and the Orediggers have made the national tournament for the past four seasons.

The NAIA volleyball season begins Aug. 15. Here is how the Frontier schools ranked in the preseason top 25:

2. Bellevue (2024 record: 32-5) 522 points

10. Providence (2024 record: 27-7) 351 points

11. Montana Western (2024 record: 25-10) 317 points

17. Montana Tech (2024 record: 20-12) 236 points

Dakota State (2024 record: 18-13) 31 points

Carroll (2024 record: 17-13) 4 points

Valley City State (2024 record: 15-15) 3 points