HOUSTON – The HCU beach volleyball team, the third seed at the Southland Conference Beach Volleyball Championships, won twice in elimination matches on Saturday at Third Coast Volleyball Club to move on to the third, and final, day of the tournament and a spot in the semifinals on Sunday at 11:00 a.m.
In their first elimination match of the day, the Huskies (13-22) won a close dual over New Orleans (12-22), 3-2. HCU's freshmen duo of
Kristin Gilmour and
Rachel Heilbrun got the scoring started with a 21-16, 21-14 win at the twos with No. 4 pair
Mary Alper and
Tatum Lockhardt following in short order with a 21-18, 21-6 win to stake the Huskies to a 2-0 win. UNO then picked up two points at the ones and threes to even things up, 2-2. The deciding point came down to the fives with the Huskies' pairing of
Kylann Griffith and
Lauren Vickery getting the 21-12, 21-10 win to advance the Huskies.
HCU then squared off against No. 4 seed San Jose State (14-12) with a spot in the semifinals on the line. Alper and Lockhardt picked up the first point for HCU at the fours, winning 21-15, 21-17. No. 2 pair Gilmour and Heilbrun then won point number two in three sets, 21-17, 12-21, 15-7. The Spartans answered with a point of their own at the ones with Jaida Ward and Jada Hal beating
Kristen Kleymeyer and
Abbey Bufkin, 21-11, 21-18. The winning point again came from the Huskies' No. 5 pair with Griffith and Vickery winning a thriller in two sets, 21-17, 23-21.
The Huskies are now set to face No. 1 seed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in a semifinal elimination match at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday, Apr. 21 with a spot in the championship match against No. 2 seed Boise State going to the victor at 2:00 p.m. Both matches Sunday will be shown on ESPN+.
