The LSU beach volleyball team added four new Tigers to its freshman class.
Freshman Claire Coppola, Taylor Bradley, Kristen Nuss and Olivia Powers honed their skills in both the classroom and in the sand at the beginning of the school year, LSU coach Russell Brock said.
Brock admired the raw skills the quartet had on and off the court.
“Obviously, they have a lot of talent to play the game and a lot of them are still really young in the game, so a lot of them are just getting better,” he said. “We didn’t lose a lot from last year, so we knew that we were bringing them in to give them an opportunity to upgrade our roster.”
Coppola is a native of Scottsdale, Arizona. She competed nationally at the Southern Pacific AAU District Championships. She also placed first in the AAU Arizona Regionals and the Las Vegas Pursuit.
Powers hails from Merrit Island, Florida, where she attended Merrit Island Christian School. Powers set school records in blocks and kills, averaging 0.5 and 3.6, respectively.
The 6-foot-1 freshman received 2014 first team All-County honors and helped the Cougars claim district for four consecutive years.
Brock said Coppola and Powers pose new difficulty for opponents, and their presence allows the team to practice against that.
“Claire and Olivia are big players,” Brock said. “The fact that we’ve got two young players that are like that in practice who put up huge blocks, we have to execute better. We have to execute our shots better. We have to swing more efficiently.”
Powers said she is excited for the start of the season and she already knows what she needs to work on. She looks forward to improving as well as spending time with the team.
“As a class, we bring a lot of athleticism, and as an individual I know that’s one of my strengths,” Powers said. “One of my [weakness] is just developing consistency which I can already see improvement over the time that I’ve been here.”
The two other Tigers offer impressive skills and honors, too, Brock said.
Bradley was second team All-District at Round Rock High School in Texas and also achieved academic All-District player honors twice.
Nuss was the LHSAA Division I MVP in New Orleans and was a state champion and Gatorade Player of the Year candidate in indoor volleyball.
Brock said the duo are “crafty” and “quick.”
“When people are playing with them, it allows them to have that experience, but most importantly when we play against them you have to better,” he said. “If you’re average, they’re going to dig your ball, and they’re going to transition back on you.”
Nuss was always an LSU fan so when she was presented with an opportunity to play, she grabbed it, she said.
However, all of LSU’s recruits weren’t so sure.
“I didn’t know for sure that I wanted to go to LSU at first when I was going on visits,” Taylor said. “But then after I visited, everyone is just like a family here and we’re all such good friends. It’s a great comradery and the school spirit is great.”
Brock said he is happy to have the four this season. They allow the team to play and look at things in a different way, even the upperclassmen.
“The way that they do it and how they play the game — we have to defend it, we have to play with it and it’s already made us better even without necessarily having them fill specific needs that we had. We knew that they would make us better as a team,” Brock said.