Beach Volleyball Duo Prepares to Make a Splash at NCAA Championship
Allanis Navas and Sofia Izuzquiza both speak Spanish … technically.
When this duo stepped onto the sand together for the first time as partners for the
TCU Women’s Beach Volleyball team, though, what came out was a cacophony of Castillian
Spanish, Boricua Spanish and desperation Spanican.
“There were some funny moments for sure,” Horned Frogs coach Hector Gutierrez said
with a chuckle. “Puerto Ricans have different ways. There is always a word or expression
that I do not understand. You’d hear ‘What? What do you mean?’ during a match even
though they are speaking the same language.”
Navas is a 5-foot-4 senior from Puerto Rico, Izuzquiza a 6-foot freshman from Spain
and, when playing together, they are 22-2 for TCU.
Socia. Dominante. Molar. This senior-freshman duo has been every translation of dominant since first being
paired together in March. Yes, they have been playing together less than two months.
In that time, they:
- Helped TCU beat No. 5 Stanford, No. 9 Long Beach State and No. 1 UCLA in a span of two days at the Death Valley Invitational in late March.
- Helped TCU win the Big 12 Championship in the first year it was awarded, joining women’s soccer, women’s basketball and men’s tennis to give the Horned Frogs four conference championships in 2024-2025.
- The Frogs cleaned up in Big 12 awards, including Gutierrez winning Coach of the Year and Izuzquiza winning Freshman of the Year.
The NCAA Championship is this weekend and the No. 2-seeded Horned Frogs are counting on this duo.
“I didn’t know her too much before she came here, just that she was one of the best
players in Spain,” Navas said. “When Hector told me I was going to be playing with
her, and here we are … Sofia and me, we are more than a partnership. We are more friends,
with really good energy outside and inside the court.”
Navas and Izuzquiza played together for the first time on March 7, 2025 — a double
line in a box score marking the occasion: Allanis Navas and Sofia Izuzquiza (TCU) def. Bailey Higgins and Carra Sassack (FSU)
21-18, 21-14.
This had not always been the plan. Navas had competed internationally with, spent
2024 trying to qualify for the Paris Olympics with and transferred to TCU this year
to play with Horned Frogs senior, Maria Gonzalez.
They played together, and well, but Gutierrez had an idea to try Navas with Izuzquiza.
They have been getting better and better right through to the Big 12 Championship
held on TCU’s campus.
“I have never experienced anything like that,” Izuzquiza said. “I’m so thankful for
the team we have, for a championship on our home court, and for Coach.”
Gutierrez has a knack for building things. He arrived at TCU in 2016, tasked with
starting a beach volleyball team from scratch in a place with no beach and no real
history. He was undeterred. He recruited talent, built teams, had a vision and never
stopped believing.
The program really took off in 2021. The Frogs made their first-ever NCAA appearance
that year and have been back every year since, including reaching the Final Four in
2023. There have been 36 home-match win streaks, No. 1 rankings and so many individual
awards in this span, but there was something about winning the Big 12 Championship.
“Looking back to how we started and where we are right now. To have a conference championship
and to be able to host on campus, this is what I wanted from the beginning,” Gutierrez
admitted. “And then to have it come down to one court at home, I’m still emotional
about it.”
Gonzalez, as well as Daniela Alvarez and Tania Moreno (who competed for Spain in the
2024 Olympics), have been around for almost half of that stretch. They are seniors
on this team, trying to do what, in nine years of NCAA Women’s Beach Volleyball Championships,
only USC and UCLA have been able to: Win it all.
“You never know who is going win,” Navas said. “We just have to keep with what we’ve
been doing.”
It should be noted that Navas and Izuzquiza both speak beautiful English but, when
on the sand together, they still sometimes revert to “Spanican” while playing.
Amigas. Campaneros. Teammates. Friends. In every translation.