CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The No. 4 seed HCU beach volleyball team opens the 2026 Southland Conference Beach Volleyball Championship on Wednesday morning at 9:00 p.m. against the No. 5 seed New Orleans Privateers at Water's Edge Park.
The Huskies (9-22, 3-3 SLC) are the fourth seed in the tournament after finishing with the same conference record as New Orleans (12-17, 3-3 SLC) but earned the higher seed by virtue of a head-to-head win over the Privateers at the SLC Mid-Season Tournament.
HCU won that meeting, 3-2, with points coming at Courts 2, 3 and 5.
Grace Melnick and
Paige Palmer earned a point at the twos via a come from behind, three-set victory (14-21, 21-19, 15-11). On Court 3,
Alexa Landmark and
Lauren Vickery won in two sets (21-13, 21-12) while
Claudia Verdejo Lozano and
Dariya Tlevlessova broke a 2-2 tie on Court 5 for the deciding points in three sets (22-24, 21-10, 16-14).
Hannah Foor and
Olivia Zeigler own a team-best nine wins this season, playing on Courts 1 and 2. The duos of Melnick/Palmer and Landmark/Vickery each have eight wins. Melnick and Palmer posted a 5-1 record in the Huskies' six SLC matches.
UNO is led this season by the sister pairing of Cassie and Ellie Sieling who finished the regular season with an 18-10 record playing at the ones. The Privateers' Court 2 pairing of Brooke Dow and Ashley Salazar also posted a winning record, going 14-11.
The Huskies own a 19-5 all-time record against the Privateers and have won each of the last five meetings. The last UNO win, however, came in Corpus Christi at the 2023 SLC Championship.
The winner of Wednesday morning's dual will go on to face top-seeded Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 1:00 p.m. while the loser will next play on Thursday, Apr. 23, morning at 11:00 a.m.
