The No. 12-ranked LSU beach volleyball team’s presence at the Green Wave Invitational at the White Sands Volleyball Courts this weekend was marked by two startlingly different performances on April 8 and 9.
LSU defeated Houston Baptist and No. 18 Tulane on the first day of the competition and advanced to an 11-4 record.
“It was a bit of a crazy day,” said LSU coach Russell Brock in a press release Friday. “We didn’t play our best throughout, but we played well enough to get these two wins. We need to make sure we win matches and sets that are tight. To win against Tulane at their place is always going to be tough.”
LSU dominated matches against Houston Baptist with all pairs winning in straight sets.
Carly Morris and Cheyenne Wood won with scores of 21-15 and 21-19. With scores of 21-14 and 21-18, duo Callan Molle and Riley Young beat Houston Baptist.
The Lady Tigers didn’t stop there.
Pairs Cati Leak and Mandi Orellana had a score of 21-10 and 21-11, while teammates Helen Boyle and Lilly Kessler won with a 21-17, 21-10 victory.
Katie Lindelow and Ashley Allmer finished, 21-7, 21-13, to give the Tigers an overall 5-0 win against Houston Baptist.
Against Tulane, the combos of Wood and Morris and Young and Orellana gained LSU a 2-0 lead after winning both their matches.
But Tulane fought back, progressing in the overall score to 2-1 after Allmer and Lindelow fell in straight sets. The Tigers denied Tulane any more points, overpowering them with a 4-1 finish after pairs Leak and Molle and Boyle and Kessler took their matches in three sets each.
“I think that we work hard and train hard, and we compete to win these big matches,” Brock said. “It’s always nice to get wins when we play, but when you have those marquee match ups, those are the most important challenges to see if we’re ready to progress and move forward.”
On the second day of the invitational, LSU fell in straight matches to No. 6 Arizona and No. 8 Georgia State, dropping to an 11-6 record in the 2016 season.
As Arizona defeated LSU 3-2, the Tigers looked to redeem themselves against Georgia State after a 2-3 loss on March 13, but LSU fell to Georgia State with an overall score of 4-1.
“It was pretty disappointing,” Brock said. “I think we came into today capable of winning both of the matches. … We’re not ready to be done, and we’re not ready for that to be the best we can be this year. We know we can be better, and we’re going to work to be better.”