Beach Defeats Missouri St. to Advance in CCSA Tournament; Will Face TCU Friday Night
Huntsville, Ala. – The LSU Beach Volleyball team took down Missouri State, 4-1, Friday at the John Hunt Sand Volleyball Complex in the first round of the CCSA Tournament to advance in the winner’s bracket.
LSU moved to 23-5 on the season while Missouri State fell to 7-7.
“Overall it was a good performance,” said head coach Russell Brock. “In a tournament of this format, you’ve got to win and that’s all that really matters.”
The No. 2 seeded Tigers will face No. 3 TCU Friday at 7 p.m. CT in the second round of the CCSA Tournament. The match was originally scheduled for Saturday, but due to a high chance of thunderstorms in Huntsville on Saturday was moved up to tonight.
Both teams are in the AVCA Top-10 with LSU as the No. 4 team in the country and TCU at No. 7.
TCU defeated the College of Charleston on Friday, 3-2, to advance in the winner’s bracket. The Horned frogs are 23-6 on the season and have been inside the AVCA Top-10 for the past seven weeks.
“Just like I expect us to play better, I expect TCU to play better tomorrow,” said Brock. “They got in a battle and they had enough in them to pull it out. We have to expect them to have that kind of energy when we play them. They have a lot of emotion and play with that fire.”
With a sunny sky and a slight breeze, all five courts were done in two sets on Friday and the Tigers won each court except for Court 2.
Ashlyn Rasnick-Pope and Grace Seits earned the first court for the Tigers on Court 3, 21-12 and 21-6. Moments later it was Olivia Ordonez and Kahlee York who won on Court 5, 21-11 and 21-4.
On Court 4, Jess Lansman and Sydney Moore won in two sets, 21-13 and 21-11. Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss moved to 28-0 on the season as the CCSA Pair of the Year won on Court 1, 21-6 and 21-10.
Claire Coppola and Kelli Greene-Agnew struggled to get in rhythm during the first set on Court 2 as the pair fell, 21-5. In the second set they were almost able to force a third, but ultimately fell, 21-19.
“There was some rust on Court 2, but we had some great conversation afterwards and we anticipate them turning it around in our next match,” said Brock. “We’ll get good performances from them moving forward.”
LSU 4, MSU 1
Kloth/Nuss (LSU) def. Garrett/Filipski (MSU): 21-6, 21-10
Cook/Tome (MSU) def. Coppola/Greene-Agnew (LSU): 21-5, 21-19
Seits/Rasnick-Pope (LSU) def. Davis/McAllen (MSU): 21-12, 21-6
Lansman/Moore (LSU) def. Jaime/Penick (MSU): 21-13, 21-11
Ordonez/York (LSU) def. Plessner/Galabova (MSU): 21-11, 21-4