BATON ROUGE, La. – HCU beach volleyball travels to Louisiana for the squad's second tournament of the young season, taking part in the LSU Tiger Beach Challenge held at the LSU Beach Volleyball Stadium.
The Huskies (1-3) opened the season last weekend with a 4-1 win over Central Arkansas before falling to a trio of ranked opponents at the Third Coast College Classic. The pairs of
Kristen Kleymeyer/
Kristin Gilmour,
Mary Alper/
Abbey Bufkin,
Kylann Griffith/
Paige Palmer and
Tatum Lockhardt/
Rachel Heilbrun all earned wins over UCA while Bufkin and Griffith paired to take the No. 2 pair from fifth-ranked TCU to three sets.
Gabi Axelrod and
Audrey Pearce also went to three sets at the fives against the Horned Frogs.
HCU is set to face Southern Miss (2-2) at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, Mar. 2, before taking on No. 7 LSU (3-1) at 3:00 p.m. On Sunday, Mar. 3, The Huskies get started early with an 8:00 a.m. start vs. North Alabama (3-1) before finishing up the tournament at 2:00 p.m. against the Nebraska Cornhuskers (6-0).
Southern Miss began the season with wins over Eckerd and Mercer while falling to Florida Gulf Coast and Stetson at the Stetson Spring Fling in DeLand, Fla. The Eagles No. 1 pair of Ola Chudzik and Sarah Murczek picked up wins over FGCU and Eckerd.
LSU went 3-1 in Houston last weekend, earning wins over the Huskies, No. 15 Washington and Central Arkansas but dropped a 3-2 decision to TCU. The Tigers' pair of Reilly Allred and Parker Bracken earned CCSA Pair of the Week honors after going 3-0 at the twos last weekend while Ella Larkin and Ellie Shank were a perfect 4-0 playing at the threes and fours.
North Alabama picked up three wins on opening weekend at the Green Wave Invitational in New Orleans, La. The Lions knocked off a pair of Southland Conference opponents, Southeastern and New Orleans, while also taking down Oregon before falling to host Tulane, 3-2. Paula Klemperer and Taylor Seney picked up Atlantic Sun Pair of the Week honors, going a perfect 4-0 as the team's top pair all weekend.
Nebraska has enjoyed a perfect start to the season at home with a pair of wins over McKendree while also defeating Park, Ottawa, Wayne State and Southwest Baptist. The Cornhuskers won all but one of their first six matches by a 5-0 final with Wayne State ending 4-1. Sunday will mark the first-ever matchup between HCU and Nebraska on the sand.
Next weekend, the Huskies travel to Tampa, Fla. for the Tampa Invite 2 hosted by the University of Tampa on Friday and Saturday, Mar. 8-9.
