The No. 12 LSU beach volleyball team hosted the two-day, three-team LSU Beach Volleyball Invitational at Mango’s Beach Volleyball Club.
The Tigers (9-4) defeated No. 10 Grand Canyon on Saturday and fell to No. 3 Florida State.
Riley Young and Jeni Clark won in straight sets to overpower Grand Canyon in the first match of the day. Megan Davenport and Cheyenne Wood earned LSU a 2-0 lead after winning three sets against Grand Canyon.
Katie Lindelow and Ashley Allmer fell short against their opponent, dropping both sets with a final score of 21-19. The duos Cati Leak and Callan Molle, Helen Boyle and Lilly Kessler brought the score back home for the Tigers, both winning in straight sets on Friday.
“We’ve honestly been talking all week about taking care of Grand Canyon,” said LSU coach Russell Brock in a press release.
“We’ve been preparing for that, and we’ve been focused on that, and we were looking to execute well against that team. We felt like we matched up well against them, and taking one match at a time, that was our focus preparing and it showed,” he said.
Florida State defeated Davenport and Wood with straight sets of 21-13 and 21-11. Young and Molle also lost their match in straight sets while beating Lindelow and Orellana in straight sets.
Florida State left with a 5-0 score in all straight sets after playing against the pairings of Boyle and Allmer and Leak and Kessler.
“We knew that we were going to be in this so we practiced some this week with some of other lineups, so I think it’s great for us to have the ability to switch it up a little bit in some fashion,” Brock said in a Friday press release.
On Sunday, LSU held the Gold and Purple doubles tournament-style brackets. The higher seeds received first round bye as single elimination was the name of the game.
LSU had one pair advance from each bracket make the final, resulting in LSU’s Carly Morris and Wood playing against teammates Roxanne McVey and Victoria Boraski, which Morris Wood won.
In the first round of the Gold bracket, Orellana, Boyle and Young, Molle lost to Grand Canyon and Florida, respectively, in straight sets.
Lindelow and Allmer defeated Grand Canyon in straight sets with close scores of 21-19 and 21-18. Leak and Kessler lost their next match to Florida State as Lindelow and Allmer also lost against Grand Canyon.
In the Purple bracket, Hoven, Clark, Boraski, McVey, Wood and Morris all beat their opponents in straight sets to advance to the quarterfinals.
McVey and Boraski advanced to the finals after a three-set win against Florida State. Wood and Morris followed suit with straight sets against Grand Canyon. The two LSU duos went head-to-head in the finals with Morris and Wood winning in straight sets with 21-16 and 21-16.