BATON ROUGE, La. – Following a two week break after the three-day, six-match Southland Conference Mid-Season Tournament, the HCU beach volleyball team travels across state lines for the LSU Battle on the Bayou this Friday and Saturday at the LSU Beach Volleyball Stadium.
The Huskies (9-13) went 4-2 at the SLC events held in Thibodaux, La., earning wins over Nicholls, Southeastern, New Orleans and McNeese while falling to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Stephen F. Austin.
HCU's No. 1 pairing of
Kristin Gilmour and
Rachel Heilbrun head into the home stretch of the schedule having won six of their last seven matches with an overall record of 14-7 this year. Court 2 duo
Paige Palmer/
Alisia Silverthorn and Court 4 pairing
Karla Sanchez George/
Lauren Vickery both went 4-2 at the SLC Mid-Season. Sanchez George and Vickery are second on the team with 11 victories and an 11-11 overall record.
HCU will first face 11
th-ranked LSU on Friday at 10:30 a.m. before taking on New Orleans at 2:15 p.m. On Saturday, the Huskies face South Carolina at 10:30 a.m. and then close things out against Southern Miss at 3:30 p.m.
The host Tigers (19-10) are coming off a 2-2 weekend at the Florida State Unconquered Invitational in Tallahassee, Fla. LSU earned wins over No. 15 Florida Atlantic and South Carolina with losses to No. 5 FSU and No. 8 Texas. All of LSU's losses this season have come to teams ranked No. 13 or better.
New Orleans (4-24) went 1-3 last weekend, earning a victory over Nicholls will suffering defeats at the hands of Southern Miss, Spring Hill and ULM. Ivana de Carvalho Piexe leads the team individually with nine wins and holds a 5-7 record playing at Court 1 with Nikelle Lander.
The South Carolina Gamecocks (8-13) have lost eight-straight duals, though seven of those have come against ranked opponents. Junior VB Trost leads USC with a 13-8 overall record and when paired with sophomore Evie Ziffer she has a 9-3 record, including a 7-1 mark at the fours.
The Huskies' last opponent of the weekend, Southern Miss (11-16), is lead by the sophomore duo of Laurel Dennis and Sadie McAda with a 14-10 record playing exclusively as the team's No. 2 pair. Last weekend, USM earned wins over UNO and Spring Hill but fell to Southeastern, 4-1.
HCU will next travel to Fort Worth, Texas for the Fight in the Fort, hosted by TCU, on Apr. 18-19 for its final tournament ahead of the Southland Conference Tournament in New Orleans, La. being held from Apr. 23-25.
