Downtown Atlanta? No problem as Georgia State thrives in beach volleyball

By Ray Glier for VolleyballMag.com

It seems illogical, but the hot, dry sand behind the Georgia State University Sports Center is an oasis.

The GSU players consider those beach volleyball courts a sanctuary from stereotypes of what a Division I player should look like. The GSU sand, insist the team nicknamed the Sandy Panthers, is refuge from stressed coaches, not at their school, but at other schools. That sand is also a harbor from selfishness that can warp a college team.

This oasis of sand/culture in the middle of downtown Atlanta, with the gold dome of the state capitol in the background, helps explain how a mid-major like Georgia State can finish fifth in the 2022 national tournament and currently stand No. 11 in the AVCA Collegiate Beach Coaches Poll.

It’s not hyperbole. It’s not made-up culture.

To wit:

The Sandy Panthers’ 5-foot-4 junior twins Angel and Bella Ferary, who play on Court 1, were rejected as a package by every Division I school that recruited them, except GSU.

“A lot of schools didn’t want us together because we’re two short people. They were like, ‘We’ll take one of you’,” Angel said. She and Bella are from nearby Marietta, Georgia.

“We don’t yell at them,” coach Beth Van Fleet said. “We won’t do that. Well, maybe once every other year, but I’d call it more being stern. We don’t assume the athletes are messing up on purpose.”

Freshman Cassie Thayse could have played at a number of schools coming out of high school. She picked GSU, where player development still counts for something. Thayse is not among the top five flights of starters, but she gave no hint she is soon headed to the transfer portal feeling betrayed, like so many other mismatched college athletes.

Georgia State is 13-7 and has lost only to the best teams in the nation, including twice to No. 4 Florida State.

Van Fleet is in her 10th season as the head coach and has six 20-win seasons. Her program doesn’t conform to the characteristics of most of the elite national programs, not in the least. GSU is not on a coast. It is not in beach volleyball strongholds like California, Florida, or Texas.

So what is the GSU cornerstone, the first building block?

For Van Fleet the architecture starts with refusing to whine. GSU does not have the…