No. 13 LSU beach volleyball traveled to Los Angeles for the MPSF Coast to Coast Classic March 6 and 7, suffering three losses on the weekend.
The Tigers ended the classic with a 1-3 against all four teams they faced, leaving them at 10-4 overall. In both days of the tournament, LSU’s offense forced a total of eight three-set matches, but fell short on exactly half of them.
Despite this, head coach Russel Brock sees these losses as areas for his team to improve against future opponents. LSU’s pairing is bright, and with the right preparation, it will be back on track.
“We have a good opportunity to continue to train and prepare over spring break out on the west coast, and another huge opportunity to compete next weekend,” Brock said. “It’s a great time for us to grow as a program. We had great individual and pair performance all through the lineup in every match.”
To open the first day of the classic, LSU suffered two straight losses as they took on No. 1 Stanford and No. 10 California.
Against Stanford, the Tigers fell 2-3 against the No. 1 team in the nation, whose commanding offense and stifling defense gave LSU a bit of a challenge.
The Cardinals claimed the first set of the match against LSU’s graduate student Zayna Meyer and redshirt freshman Bella Lagemann. The pair lost in two straight sets, 17-21 and 13-21.
The next match wins for the Cardinals consisted of another straight two-set win, but a long and hard three-set rally for the Tigers also ended with a loss. Sophomore Camryn Chatellier and graduate student Aubrey O’Gorman lost their sets 18-21 and 21-23.
Redshirt juniors Kate Baker and Emily Hellmeth fought hard, and it looked as if the match win would go the Tigers’ way, but the pair eventually fell in three: 22-20, 9-21, 9-15.
The two set wins for the Tigers came from juniors Skylar Martin and Tatum Finlason, who brought the Tigers’ first point of the match. The two juniors battled in three sets: 24-22, 16-21 and 15-10, evening up the match record.
The second win for the Tigers was on the first court, featuring sophomore Julia Sprecher and freshman Kenzey McGatlin, with a match win over three sets: 23-21, 19-21 and 16-14. Ultimately, the Cardinals came out victorious to end the matchups.
Facing California next in hopes of gaining a win on the evening, the Tigers fell short in matches again, this time suffering a 1-4 loss against the Bears.
Three of the matches went to a third set, with a single-set win coming from Hellmuth and Lagemann, who battled to take their set 2-1. O’Gorman and Chatellier lost their match 21-15, 15-21 and 12-15, while Sprecher and McGatlin also lost in three: 22-20, 21-23 and 8-15.
Martin and Finlason fell in two straight sets: 18-21 and 17-21, as the Bears’ offense took control in the final minutes of the match. Meyer and Barker fell in two straight sets as well, finishing their match 25-21 and 19-21.
On day two of the classic, the Tigers went 1-1 against No. 18 Washington and No. 3 USC to avoid a complete sweep by the four teams they faced off against.
Against Washington, the Tigers claimed a 3-2 match victory. The three winning courts were all attained in dominant two-set matches. Hellmuth and Laegman won 21-13 and 21-11, and Finlason and Martin won 21-16, 21-16 and Sprecher and McGatlin won 21-14 and 21-15.
Against USC, the match wins were reversed. The Tigers fell 2-3 to the No. 3 team, the two wins featuring another three-set match and a straight two-set victory. Hellmuth and Lagemann defeated the Trojans 23-21, 20-22 and 15-12 to earn the Tigers’ second point of the matchup. O’Gorman and Chatellier secured the first victory, 3-28 and 21-18.
“We faced some of the biggest tests and absolutely played some of our best ball,” Brock said. “There’s no chance that we are not going to continue to improve, but there’s also no doubt that we are really good and capable of competing against anyone.”
The Tigers hit the road once more before coming back home to Baton Rouge, traveling to Manhattan, California, to participate in the East Meets West Invitational March 13-14. LSU will compete against California, UCLA, Loyola Marymount and the University of Hawai’i.
