GULF SHORES, AL. – No. 6 LSU Beach Volleyball split their matches on the first day of competition in The March To May tournament, defeating No. 10 Georgia State, 3-0 and falling to No. 3 UCLA, 0-3.
Due to approaching inclement weather, the matches were only played until a winner was decided instead of using the usual “to completion” method, resulting in the abbreviated final scores.
The Tigers kicked things off with a dominating win over No. 10 Georgia State to start the morning. On Court 2, Grace Seits and Parker Bracken won their first set easily, 21-8 and were able to clinch the second set, 21-17 to give the LSU its first point in the match. On Court 3, the pair of Hannah Brister and Reilly Allred won in straight sets, 21-14 and 21-18. On Court 4, Ella Larkin and Lara Boos dominated, winning 21-8 and 21-12 to give the Tigers a 3-0 win over GSU. Court 1 with Kylie Deberg and Ellie Shank and Court 5 with Melia Lindner and Amber Haynes both with unfinished due to today’s format.
“I think we played really well at times today,” said head coach Russell Brock. “The Georgia State match was a good test, they always give us trouble, they are scrappy. Then, with windy conditions, to be able to handle them pretty easily was a good sign of where we are. We know we need to be way better than a lot of teams that we face and they usually give us trouble, so that was a good result.”
In the second match of the day, No. 6 LSU took on No. 3 UCLA. The Tigers battled, but would eventually lose the match, 0-3. On Court 1, Deberg and Shank lost in straight sets, 16-21 and 19-21. Seits and Bracken lost both sets on Court 2 by a score of 16-21. On Court 5, Lindner and Haynes lost the first set, 16-21, and after battling in the second set, the pair eventually fell, 20-22. Both Court 3 with Brister and Allred and Court 4 with Larkin and Boos went unfinished.
“I think we played well against UCLA, but we are still not where we need to be to beat those teams that are at the top of the list,” said Brock. “It’s not that we aren’t capable, there were times where we were dominating and there were courts I even feel like if we had played it all the way out we would have won on them. But we didn’t play well enough to stay in the match and get that opportunity. Looking forward to playing Florida State in the morning. We obviously will get UCLA again this year. There are great opportunities to continue to improve and we need to get over that hump sooner than later to continue that progression towards where we want to be.”
The Tigers hit the beach again tomorrow as they will face No. 4 Florida State at 10 a.m. CT and Mercer at 3 p.m. CT. For live updates during the matches, follow @LSUBeachVB on Twitter.
#6 LSU 3, #10 Georgia State 0
1. Kylie DeBerg/Ellie Shank (LSU) vs. Angel Ferary/Bella Ferary (GSU) 14-21, 21-19, unfinished
2. Grace Seits/Parker Bracken (LSU) def. Elise Saga/Kelly Dorn (GSU) 21-8, 21-17
3. Hannah Brister/Reilly Allred (LSU) def. Yasmin Kuck/Lila Bordis (GSU) 21-14, 21-18
4. Ella Larkin/Lara Boos (LSU) def. Maddy Delmonte/Ayla Johnson (GSU) 21-8, 21-12
5. Melia Lindner/Amber Haynes (LSU) vs. Destiny White/Aliisa Vuorinen (GSU) 21-19, 20-19, unfinished
#3 UCLA 3, #6 LSU 0
1. Lexy Denaburg/Maggie Boyd (UCLA) def. Kylie DeBerg/Ellie Shank (LSU) 21-16, 21-19
2. Abby Van Winkle/Peri Brennan (UCLA) def. Grace Seits/Parker Bracken (LSU) 21-16, 21-16
3. Tessa Van Winkle/Sophie Moore (UCLA) vs. Hannah Brister/Reilly Allred (LSU) 21-15, 17-20, unfinished
4. Haley Hallgren/Rileigh Powers (UCLA) vs. Ella Larkin/Lara Boos (LSU) 19-21, 18-17, unfinished
5. Kelli Greene-Agnew/Natalie Myszkowski (UCLA) def. Melia Lindner/Amber Haynes (LSU) 21-16, 22-20