BATON ROUGE – Three pairs from the LSU Beach Volleyball were recently named as winners of the inaugural AVCA Top Flight Award; from Court 1 Claire Coppola and Kristen Nuss, from Court 4 Megan Davenport and Emmy Allen, and from Court 5 Riley Young and Maddie Ligon.
The AVCA Top Flight Award is designed to reward hard work and consistent play despite roster position. Any pairs that competed in 15 matches and won at least 75-percent of their matches throughout the season were designated as Top Flight Award winners.
Coppola and Nuss, both sophomores, have competed in every match of their collegiate careers together. The duo has amassed 58 wins together in two seasons and went 31-8 on the top court in the 2018 season. Coppola and Nuss were named the CCSA Pair of Year after winning two conference pair of the week honors, one national AVCA Pair of the Week award and being named to the CCSA All-Conference team.
Davenport and Allen went 18-7 together this season, mainly on Court 4. On March 18th, the duo defeated the number three pair from top-ranked Pepperdine in three sets. From March 25-April 20 Davenport and Allen won 10 of 11 matches, defeating pairs from six top-20 teams.
Ligon and Young went 15-4 on Court 5 this season. The duo wasn’t paired together until about a month into the season, but when they were, Ligon and Young were dynamic. In their first weekend together, they went 4-0 and defeated pairs from three ranked teams. Ligon and Young never lost consecutive matches and 11 of their wins came against ranked competition.