TCU wins 2025 NCAA Beach Volleyball National Championship

It is a celebration in Gulf Shores, Alabama as the TCU Horned Frogs defeat the Loyola Marymount Lions in the 2025 NCAA Beach Volleyball Tournament finals on Sunday morning to earn the program’s first National Championship.

The Horned Frogs won the Big 12 regular season and Conference Tournament in the first year of the league sponsoring the sport. After dropping only five matches all season, TCU earned the No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Horned Frogs made its first National Championship appearance after getting to the NCAA Tournament in five consecutive seasons and reaching the Final Four in 2023. Since becoming an officially sanctioned NCAA event, the Championship has only ever been won by USC (six titles) and UCLA (two titles). As the No. 4 seed, LMU reached the Final with a first round sweep of No. 13 Florida Atlantic before taking down the sport’s titans USC 3-1 in the quarterfinal and knocking off top seeded UCLA 3-2 in the semifinal. TCU swept past Georgia State and Texas into a semifinal battle with Tournament mainstay 6-seed Cal Poly which the Horned Frogs won 3-1.

TCU opened the scoring with the All-Big 12 pair of Ana Vergara & Anhelina Khmil securing the point from Court 4, 21-14, 21-19, bringing that pairing to a perfect 21-0 when playing together this season. LMU tied it up with a Court 2 straight set victory 21-16, 21-17 over TCU’s Hailey Hamlett & Maria Gonzalez. The back-and-forth affair continued as TCU pulled ahead with the Court 3 point while LMU brought the match level again by taking the point on Court 5. It all built to the showdown from Court 1 between each squad’s top pair as the All-American marquee matchup would decide the National Champion. The Horned Frogs’ pair of Tania Moreno & Daniela Alvarez have been performing at the elite level of the sport together TCU since 2021 and competed in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games representing Spain. It was LMU’s duo of Michelle Schaffer & Anna Pelloia who emerged with the first set, escaping with the the 21-18 advantage. Alvarez & Moreno bounced right back with a 21-15 set win to force the decisive third set. TCU stormed to a quick advantage in that third set and who better to deliver the clinching moment than four-time First Team All-American and 2025 National Player of the Year Daniela Alvarez with the block at the net and the thrill of emotion as the Horned Frogs rushed the sand to celebrate being crowned as National Champions