LSU beach volleyball faces their first losses after making leaps and bounds in their season opener.
The Tigers traveled to Boca Raton, Florida, to compete in the FAU Beach Burrow Bash. It was here that the Tigers received their first losses of the season. LSU faced UAB, FAU, FSU and South Carolina. They previously faced FSU and South Carolina in the season opener and defeated them, but that wasn’t the case in Boca Raton.
“In the big picture, we just didn’t play as well as we needed to,” coach Russell Brock said. “There’s lot of factors that come into that. We played great at times, and when you don’t play great all the time, you leave yourself open for scenarios where you don’t get the results you’re looking for. It was good wake up call for us.”
On day one, LSU started the day playing FSU. The Seminoles were out for revenge after the Tigers gave them their first NCAA loss. Junior Kristen Nuss and Claire Coppola were the only duo able to take down FSU. Soon after, FSU clinched the match and took down the Tigers by a score of 4-1.
LSU redeemed themselves later in day one by taking down FAU to bring back some confidence before going into day two. Day two started with a tough match versus South Carolina. Two duos were able to take down the Gamecocks, including Nuss with Coppola and freshman Allison Coens with sophomore Hunter Domanski.
“I think we saw a lot of the same things from them,” Brock said. “Florida State changed their lineup a little bit, but it wasn’t anything that should have been impactful. Matches against good teams are gonna be really tight and it might come down to one play. I don’t think it was anything that they did. It was significantly more about our ability to perform our best.”
LSU ultimately fell to South Carolina by a score of 3-2. After that, the Tigers quickly took down UAB by a score of 4-1. The weekend didn’t go as the Tigers had hoped after the hype created from their season opener. Since these matches, LSU fell from a No. 4 spot to the No. 6 spot in the AVCA and DiG polls.
“Both of the teams we lost to are really good teams,” Domanski said. “Things didn’t go our way that particular day, but if we get them again we can win. It can go either way. The teams are pretty equally matched.”
LSU will try to redeem themselves in their next match in Manhattan Beach, California, for the East Meets West Invitational. The Tigers will take on No. 1 UCLA, No 2. USC, No. 3 Pepperdine and No. 5 Hawaii. LSU is the underdog with their No. 6 ranking, but coach Brock previously said he would prefer it that way.
“It’s great being the underdog going in,” Domanski said. “We have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Every team we beat helps us in the rankings and helps us overall. We can play free and with nothing to lose.”
UCLA is undefeated this season and will undoubtedly be LSU’s biggest competition. USC and Hawaii haven’t faced as many teams as LSU and seem to be fair competition. Pepperdine is somewhere in between. LSU has their work cut out for them in this invitational and they’re going to have to fight to bring home a win.
LSU begins the invitational facing UCLA on March 9.
“We’re supposed to lose these matches,” Brock said. “Now, granted, in our mind, we know that we have the ability to win. The biggest thing about our job this weekend is we want to play well. Our team is built for this type of competition and these types of conditions. So to go out there we expect to play well and that’s our goal.”
