BATON ROUGE, La.- In preparation for its first match in two weeks, the LSU beach volleyball team held its fourth annual Purple and Gold Scrimmage at Mango’s Beach Volleyball Club on Saturday morning.
The scrimmage was split into three segments and served as an opportunity for head coach Russell Brock to experiment with his roster. Brock tested out different pairs and matchups to assess chemistry and finalize the pairings.
“We’ve been looking forward to today and the opportunity to get out there and compete. Obviously, it’s not against another team but the competitive environment and playing out here in front of fans is something you can’t replicate in practice,” said Brock. “Today was a great step in our preparation for competition.”
Throughout the scrimmage, Brock was able to evaluate his team, looking to identify any potential areas that need to be addressed leading up to the opener.
“A big thing we’ve seen here and in practice is their ability to be flexible and play really well with lots of different partners,” said Brock. “Pretty much everybody switched up all throughout the day, and everyone was playing great volleyball.”
“It was all high-level, regardless of who they were with. The players were able to pick up our system and really execute regardless of who they were playing with or against.”
The scrimmage also served as an opportunity for players to experience in-game scenarios before they start competitive play.
“We’re trying to create players who can evaluate what needs to be done on their own because that’s the way our sport is,” explained Brock. “We can’t give them a lot of feedback during matches, so they have to be able to adjust on the fly, and they did that really well today.”
LSU opens the season against Florida State at 8 a.m. on March 4 at the Stetson Invitational in DeLand, Florida.
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