MONROE, La. – The ULM beach volleyball team returns to the sand this weekend when it heads to New Orleans to take part in the Bayou Beach Duals on March 5-6 at Tulane. The two-day event will pit ULM against Florida State (March 5), Spring Hill (March 5), Texas A&M-Kingsville (March 6) and the host Green Wave (March 6).
ULM is in search of its first team victory of the season after wrapping up the Houston Baptist Tournament, which took place on February 26-27, with setbacks to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (twice), Houston Baptist and No. 1 LSU. Three of those matches were decided by one point (3-2), while the clash with LSU was in the Tigers' favor by a 4-1 margin.
The Warhawks have three pairings with at least two wins each on the season.
Anna Demmer and
Katie McKay capped off the Houston Baptist Tournament with a team-best three wins for the Warhawks. ULM's No. 2 seeds posted their first win, 21-18, 21-19, over A&M-Corpus Christi's Mary Dodge and Taylor Horsfall. In Saturday's afternoon session, Demmer and McKay posted a 21-17, 19-21, 15-13 victory over Houston Baptist's Maddie Butters and Brendan Miller.
The biggest win of the weekend for the ULM tandem of Demmer and McKay came on Sunday, February 27, when they earned a three-set victory over LSU's Reilly Allred and Claire Coppola, resulting in the lone ULM point.
Last weekend's No. 1 pairing of
Audrey Brooks and
Julia Blazek triumphed in a pair of matches against A&M-Corpus Christi, downing Micaela Mirabala and Giulana Corrales (29-27, 21-10) for their first win of the season. In Saturday's clash with the Islanders' tandem of Corrales and Brooke Pertuit, Brooks and Blazek earned a three-set win by scores of 21-18, 23-25, 15-7.
ULM's No. 3 seeded tandem of
Abigail Elder and
Kayla Gallant also posted two wins in the opening weekend. They claimed a 21-11, 21-15 win over the Houston Baptist tandem of Megan Patillo and Natalie Bennett on February 26 and followed that by defeating A&M-Corpus Christi's Kylie Kvam and Brooke Adkisson on Sunday by scores of 22-20 and 21-16.
The Warhawks open the tournament with a clash against Florida State on Friday, March 5 at 10:30 a.m. ULM has squared off against the Seminoles five times in program history and have claimed only one point in that span. Florida State enters the match 4-0 on the season after posting 5-0 wins over Southern Miss, No. 6 Cal Poly and Tampa along with a 4-1 victory over No. 8 Loyola Marymount last weekend.
Friday's second match, against Spring Hill College (4-0) is set to begin at 4:30 p.m. ULM owns a 6-2 lead in the head-to-head series with the Badgers, winning three of its last four matches. All four of the Badgers' wins last weekend came in 5-0 fashion, two were against Huntingdon College (Feb. 26) and the other two came over William Carey (Feb. 27).
Saturday begins with a 10:30 a.m. showdown against in-state rival Tulane. The Green Wave have won their last seven straight matches, dating back to a March 6, 2020 win over the Warhawks at the New Orleans Invitational. The most recent wins came against New Orleans (5-0), UAB (4-1), Utah (5-0) and Southeastern Louisiana (5-0) in succession at the Green Wave Invitational last weekend.
The final match of the weekend for ULM comes on Saturday at 12:30 when the Warhawks face Texas A&M-Kingsville. ULM owns a 5-1 lead in the all-time series, winning five straight matches between March 25, 2017 and March 22, 2019. The last time the two teams met, which came on March 23, 2019, Texas A&M-Kingsville emerged with a 3-2 win at the ULM Bayou Bash in Monroe.
