BATON ROUGE –Claire Coppola and Kristen Nuss picked up their second preseason All-America honor on Friday, this time from collegebeachvb.com.
LSU’s two all-time winningest players were named to the volleyballmag.com Preseason All-America team on January 28 as well.
The CBVB Preseason Committee All-American team is comprised of 10 players from around the country. CBVB’s panel of Brooke Kuhlman, Molly Scheel, Sarah Sponcil, Travis Mewhirter, Summer Nash, Anne Marie Anderson, and Holly McPeak – all respected names in the collegiate beach volleyball ranks – selected the team.
The senior duo has helped take the LSU Beach program to national prominence, leading the Tigers to appearances at the NCAA Championships in each of the past three seasons. LSU made its best run at the tournament last season when it made it to the NCAA semi-finals and finished as the No. 3 team in the country.
LSU was ranked the preseason No. 2 team in the nation by DiG Magazine on January 13, a program-best ranking, and No. 3 by collegebeachvb.com earlier in the week. The AVCA preseason poll has not yet been released.
Coppola and Nuss are the two-time defending CCSA Pair of the Year and, competing in every collegiate match together, have gone 91-19 in their first three seasons. After bouncing between Court 1 and 2 for the first part of their freshman season in 2017, Coppola and Nuss took a firm grip on the top court on April 1, 2017 and have not looked back since.
In their first three seasons, Coppola and Nuss have set LSU records for wins by a pair in a season every year; 27 in 2017, 31 in 2018 and 33 in 2019. Coppola, from Scottsdale, Arizona and Nuss, from New Orleans, Louisiana, have compiled win-streaks of 16, 14 and 13. Each of them have earned spots on the AVCA All-America team (2018 and 2019) and the volleyballmag.com All-America team (2017, 2018 and 2019).
On April 7, 2019, Coppola and Nuss swept their match on Court 1 against Houston Baptist to win their 81st match together, breaking Katie Lindelow’s record of 80 individual wins in Purple and Gold. Heading into their senior seasons, Coppola and Nuss have 91 individual and pair wins and will look to become the first players in LSU history to reach the 100-win mark.
To go with their impressive record at LSU, Coppola and Nuss have won the USAV Collegiate Beach Championship in back-to-back seasons as well, competing against top collegiate American beach pairs and earning the right to train with team USA. After winning the USAV Collegiate Beach Championship in 2018, Coppola and Nuss earned a spot to represent America at the FISU World University Championship in Munich, Germany. Coppola and Nuss finished fifth in a field of 32 top collegiate beach pairs from around the globe.
The 2020 season is right around the corner. LSU will host its annual Purple vs. Gold Scrimmage Saturday, February 15 at 10 a.m. CT at LSU Beach Volleyball Stadium. The Tigers will head to Honolulu, Hawaii the following weekend for their first competition of the year in the Duke Kahanamoku Beach Classic.
On February 29-March 1, LSU will host the Tiger Beach Challenge for its earliest home event in program history. The defending national champions preseason No. 1 UCLA Bruins will make their first appearance of all-time to LSU Beach Volleyball Stadium on February 29.
Aside from Coppola and Nuss, LSU returns six other players who won at least 15 matches in 2019. Sophomores Kelli Agnew and Allison Coens were each named to the CCSA All-Freshman team last year and sophomore Ashlyn Rasnick-Pope along with Rodriguez were both named to the CCSA All-Tournament team.
Junior Hunter Domanski returns after earning 47 victories over the past two seasons and Powers sits at 56 career victories, eighth most in program history.
Additionally, LSU added five freshmen that all have significant experience playing beach volleyball along with Jess Schaben, a three-time indoor All-American graduate transfer from Iowa State.
For the latest information on LSU Beach Volleyball, fans can follow the Tigers on Twitter and Instagram @LSUbeachVB and @RussLSUbeach, or on Facebook by liking LSU Beach Volleyball.