BATON ROUGE – The Court 1 duo of Claire Coppola and Kristen Nuss swept the weekend at the Gamecock Invitational, winning all four matches in consecutive sets and defeating three pairs from top-15 teams, earning CCSA and AVCA/CollegeBeachVB.com Pair of the Week Honors
Coppola and Nuss are 12-4 on the season as a pair, winning 11 matches in back-to-back sets. Nine of their wins have come against ranked competition. The duo won CCSA Pair of the Week Honors on February 27, following their 4-0 performance at the GCU Beach Tournament in Arizona to open the season. This is the first time that a pair from LSU has been named the national pair of the week with the honor from AVCA/CollegeBeachVB.com.
In Columbia, South Carolina over the weekend, Coppola and Nuss defeated the Court 1 pair from No. 11 Georgia State, Jacksonville State, No. 1 Pepperdine and No. 9 South Carolina.
In the first match of the weekend, the LSU duo took on Teegan Van Gunst, a two-time AVCA All-American in indoor volleyball, and Tiffany Creamer with a score of 21-16 in both sets.
Against Jacksonville State, Coppola and Nuss’s win helped LSU sweep, 5-0, defeating Katie Will and Kayie Milton, 21-8 and 21-14.
The LSU pair beat the top pair from the first-ranked team to start Sunday with 21-18 and 23-21 victories over Brooke Bauer and Madalyn Roh, who was named to both the AVCA and Volleyball-Magazine All-America team last season.
To end the weekend, Coppola and Nuss earned the lone court win against South Carolina when the Tigers fell 4-1 to the Gamecocks. The duo defeated Shannon Williams and Ali Denney, a 2017 CCSA All-Freshman team member, of South Carolina, 21-16 and 21-19.
Coppola, Nuss and the entire LSU beach volleyball team will host their first home tournament of the season this weekend at Mango’s off of Sherwood Forrest in Baton Rouge, March 24-25. The Tigers will take on No. 20 FAU, No. 17 Stetson, and New Orleans on Saturday before taking on the College of Charleston and No. 18 Tulane on Sunday.