The Sandy Tigs had their first match of the season at home on March 4, hosting The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Tusculum and No. 19 South Carolina for day one of two of The Tiger Beach Challenge.
Along with it being the first home challenge of the 2023 season, LSU beach volleyball celebrates 10 seasons as a program this season. The team looked to have the fire to play not only for LSU, but for the program itself to celebrate what the program has accomplished in the last 10 seasons.
“It was a great day, I mean, it’s always fun to play at home and the team played really well,” said Head Coach Russell Brock. “We got tons of people in the lineup and lots of extra matches being played. Everybody did a great job and obviously when we have the fan support that comes out, it just kind of takes it up to another level.”
The Tigers started their weekend of play with a clean 5-0 sweep of UAB. LSU took every match in straight sets.
Ella Larkin and Lara Boos got off to a hot start on Court 4, leading the entire set and closing it out 21-9 before heading into a tighter second set. The pair led 15-10 before UAB went on a 3-0 scoring run to close the gap. Fighting to stay ahead, Larkin and Boos went on a scoring run of their own to grow their lead to 17-13. After a few rallies, Larkin tooled UAB’s block to take the set 21-17 and the match 2-0.
Cassidy Chambers and Amber Haynes started their match on Court 5 with a back-and-forth battle for points, keeping the score tied for a majority of the set. The pair struggled early to go on runs but were able to walk away with a 21-16 first set win. The second set followed a similar story as the pair kept it tied up at 6-6 until breaking off to gain a lead of 12-9. The Tigers took their largest lead of 17-12 before ending the second set 21-17.
Court 3 featured Hannah Brister and Reilly Allred. The pair got off to a rough start, giving UAB a 9-6 lead early on. The Tigers were able to tie it up late in the set with 17 points across the board and went on a 4-1 run to walk away with a 21-18 first set win.
The second set on Court 3 started with back-and-forth points, tying it up at three points each. Gameplay was momentarily paused after Brister hit a ball off the face of a UAB player, but resumed shortly after the player was cleared to continue playing. The Tigers played a much cleaner set, gaining a lead of 14-9 before going on a 7-3 run to finish off the second set 21-12.
Court 2 started off with an early 6-4 lead from Grace Seits and Parker Bracken. The pair continued to grow their lead and went up 19-10. After a UAB service error, the Tigers took the set 21-12. The second set started with another Tiger run as the duo went up 10-3. A service ace from Allred closed out the second set 21-9, giving the LSU pair the match.
Kylie DeBerg and Ellie Shank continue to play as LSU’s Court 1 pair and started the game strong with a 6-2 lead before going up 11-6. UAB went on a run of their own to inch closer at 11-10, but DeBerg and Shank fought to gain a 20-15 advantage. After a service error by DeBerg on set point, Shank buried the ball to take the set 21-16.
Set two was opened up with a 7-4 lead for the Tigers. The strength of the match for the pair was DeBerg’s serve as she put up an 18-11 lead before, they closed out the set 21-14.
LSU grabbed the win against UAB in a sweep, winning all 10 sets of the five matches played. After a break from gameplay, the Tigers were in the sand again to play Tusculum with a few different names in the starting pairs.
Brooke Blutreich stepped onto Court 5 with Chambers to open up gameplay against the Pioneers. The duo gained an early 7-2 lead and continued their strong play to go up 14-7. Chambers went to the service line at 15-8 and had two back-to-back aces, growing the Tiger lead to 17-8. Off a Blutreich kill, the duo closed out the first set 21-14.
The second set followed a different story as the set was tied up 6-6 until LSU went on a 3-0 run to gain a 9-6 lead. With a 12-5 run, Blutreich and Chambers took the set 21-11 to secure the first win against Tusculum.
Melia Lindner joined the starting lineup on Court 4 with Haynes. The set opened with a 6-2 Tiger lead, but the Pioneers came back to cut the lead down to 7-6. The Tiger duo didn’t let that stop their strong play as they went back up 14-9 off a Lindner block.
After a few kills from Haynes and blocks from Lindner, the pair closed out set one with a 21-13 win.
Set two had the same defensive success with Haynes covering the court and Lindner blocking at the net. With a large lead of 18-12, the pair went on to take the set 21-15. The Tigers led Tusculum 2-0 without having dropped a set on the day.
Larkin and Boos moved up to Court 3 and struggled early on. Tusculum led the pair 9-5 and continued to lead in the opening set. Slowly chipping away at the Pioneers’ lead, Larkin and Boos slimmed the lead down to 14-12 before taking the first set on a 9-3 run. The Tigers took the set 21-17 off a roll shot from Boos.
The second set on Court 3 opened up with an early 4-4 tie, but the Tiger duo got the lead early with a 9-6 advantage. A stuff block from Larkin put the pair at 18-11 and they went on to take the set 21-12, winning their match in straight sets.
Elizabeth Masters made her career debut in the starting five with Bracken on Court 2. Set one was tight the whole time, but the Tigers came out on top 21-19. Set two continued with the ties and lead changes, opening up with a 9-9 tie, but Masters and Bracken were able to break away with a 9-1 run to get up 18-10. The Tigers walked away with another win against the Pioneers after taking the second set, 21-12.
Court 1 had little to no issues finishing off the Pioneers thanks to DeBerg and Shank. With service pressure from both players, they were able to take the first set 21-3. The second set was another story of service runs as a handful of aces contributed to a 21-7 second set win.
LSU took care of Tusculum with a 5-0 sweep, winning every match in straight sets despite a new starting lineup. Following the conclusion of gameplay against the Pioneers, the Tigers were ready to take on South Carolina for their first ranked opponent of the season.
“When you play five matches over the weekend, it can be taxing,” said Brock. “Especially at this time of the year where we’re still kind of getting into competition shape, because you know, we’ve only been playing for two weeks really in full competition. So, if we have an opportunity to get some other people who are working hard, [they] are very capable. We made all those substitutions and still came out with a 5-0 win.”
The Sandy Tigs reverted back to the starting five from the match against UAB to take on the Gamecocks for the last match of day one of The Tiger Beach Challenge.
Chambers and Haynes were back together on Court 5 for their last match of the day. An early 10-3 lead sparked hot play from the duo, and they were able to take the first set of their match, 21-9. The second set for the pair was a harder battle as they started the set behind 4-0. With a couple of ties and scoring runs from both sides, Chambers and Haynes stepped up on defense and took the set 21-17.
Boos and Larkin got the crowd into the game with a breakout 11-6 lead in the first set on Court 4. With Larkin’s indoor skills as LSU volleyball’s libero and incredible defensive efforts from Boos, it was almost impossible for South Carolina to get a ball down on the Tiger side of the court. The pair took the first set 21-15, and with the same defensive fire, they were identical in the second set, taking it 21-15.
On Court 3, set one was full of back-and-forth points. Brister and Allred kept the set tied up until the last minute, making a 2-0 break to take the set 21-19. Set two had much better play from the pair as they gained as large of a lead as 17-8. The Tigers took the set, 21-12, and the match 2-0.
Seits and Bracken were back on Court 2 to face the Gamecocks. Despite their success against UAB in the morning, the pair took a hard-fought loss against South Carolina in straight sets, 14-21, 20-22.
“I think over the past three weeks, they’ve probably been our most consistent pair,” said Brock. “They’ve been playing really, really well. I mean, you don’t ever want to lose, but it didn’t cost us anything tonight, and I think [the loss] will light a fire under them. They’re not going to lose their confidence, but they’re going to see, ‘Okay, we can be better than that.’ And so, as they engage moving forward, maybe it was the perfect thing for them.”
The duo showed their greatest fight of the match in set two, gaining a 19-14 advantage late in the game. Trying to force a tie-breaking third set, Seits and Bracken let it slip out of their hands as South Carolina came back on a 5-0 run to tie things up, and eventually took the set 22-20 over the Tigers.
“I think that in spurts within that match—and you got to give a lot of credit to South Carolina’s 2’s, they played a great match and that’s probably the best I’ve ever seen both of them play—I feel like when we did what we were supposed to do, we were in control,” said Brock.
“We just had too many mental slips, but that’s great because mental slips, you can address. The ability to play the game at a level that’s going to be successful against anyone they face is there. We’ve seen it. So, it’s just about doing that over time.”
DeBerg and Shank took care of business against South Carolina, taking both sets 21-9. The highlight of the pair’s final match of the night was without a doubt their defensive efforts.
“They’ve done a lot of really impressive things over the past few months, and when we put them together in the fall, we had an expectation that they would work well together,” said Brock. “They’ve really exceeded that expectation and tonight, I think, was maybe the best I’ve seen them play, which is exciting because I don’t think they’re anywhere near done developing. So, to see them play in such a dominant fashion against a good team that has high expectations to be a really good pair within college volleyball—it was fun.”
With Shank flying everywhere across the sand and DeBerg moving all along the net to block the Gamecocks, it’s no surprise this duo resides on Court 1. Brock referred to the pair as unreal after watching their gameplay during the match.
“I really enjoyed, as a beach volleyball fan, watching them play and do what they were doing,” said Brock. “They were all over the place and dominant in every facet of the game.”
LSU reigned victorious against South Carolina, taking their first top-20 opponent down 4-1.
The Sandy Tigs will finish The Tiger Beach Challenge today with matches against The University of North Alabama and Southeastern Louisiana University.
“We’re always excited to do this again,” said Brock. “It’ll absolutely be a beautiful day, so hopefully we’ll have some people come out. The challenge won’t be as high, but sometimes it’s a bigger challenge to create that energy when the team across the net isn’t really pushing you as hard. I’m excited to get some more people in and give them opportunities, so it’ll be fun no matter what happens, and the weather will be great, so hopefully we’ll have another great crowd and have fun again.”
