BATON ROUGE, La. -- The ULM sand volleyball program defeated LSU 3-2 Tuesday afternoon at Mango's Beach Volleyball in Baton Rouge.
"What happened today was sand volleyball at its best. Almost every match was close, and fans got the three-ring circus effect of getting great plays to watch non-stop," head coach David Fischer said.
It marks the first win of the year for ULM and was the Tigers' (0-1) first-ever sand volleyball match.
Blanca Ocana and Hope Pawlik lifted the Warhawks (1-4) to the win with a 15-10 victory in the third set over LSU's Victoria Boraski and Cati Leak.
"Blanca and Hope had a gutsy win to seal (the match) with hundreds of fans watching," Fiscer added.
ULM got its first point of the match from Alannah Cullum and Rachel Arnason at the fourth position. The duo defeated the Tiger tandem of Malorie Pardo and Mimi Eugene.
Zuzana Markova and Marcela Araya improved to 4-1 on the season with their 2-0 sweep of LSU's Meghan Mannari and Katie Lindelow.
"Zuzana and Marcela gave another great perofmance. Even though Hadley Swartz and Michelle McNamee came up just short, they played some great sideout volleyball, and Rachel and Alannah were just so smooth."
"I'm so proud of our team's overall effort. It was just enough today, and we know what we need to do to get better," Fischer said.
The Warhawks return to action Friday against the College of Charleston and Mercer as part of the South Carolina Sand Invitational. The opening match begins at 12:15 p.m.
For more updates on the sand volleyball program, follow @ULM_SandVB on Twitter.
ULM 3, LSU 2
No. 1: Zuzana Markova/Marcela Araya (ULM) d. Meghan Mannari/Katie Lindelow (LSU) 21-15, 21-17
No. 2: Kaitlin Hatcher/Helen Boyle (LSU) d. Michelle McNamee/Hadley Swartz (ULM) 14-21, 29-27, 15-8
No. 3: Blanca Ocana/Hope Pawlik (ULM) d. Victoria Boraski/Cati Leak (LSU) 17-21, 21-15, 15-10
No. 4: Alannah Cullum/Rachel Arnason (ULM) d. Malorie Pardo/Mimi Eugene (LSU) 21-16, 21-19
No. 5: Emma Hiller/Katarina Raicevic (LSU) d. Celine Flores/Kaitlyn Shearer (ULM) 21-19, 21-15
No. 6 (Exhibition): Briana Holman/Haley Smith (LSU) def. Khourtni Fears/Laura Whalen (LSU) 21-15, 21-14
