MONROE, La. – The ULM beach volleyball team is slated to face three AVCA Top 20 teams in its four matches at the Gamecock Grand Slam at Wheeler Beach in Columbia, South Carolina.
ULM meets Mercer at 8 a.m. CST Friday morning before taking on three consecutive ranked opponents to close the weekend in No. 15 Pepperdine at 2 p.m. CST Friday, No. 19 South Carolina at 10 a.m. CST Saturday and No. 5 LSU at 12 p.m. CST Saturday.
Three Warhawk pairs remained intact from the first weekend to the second. Senior
Audrey Brooks and junior
Julia Blazek remained on the top court for the Warhawks, going 2-1 at ULM's Bayou Bash last weekend, earning wins over Houston Baptist and Nicholls. Seniors
Kayla Gallant and
Rylin Adams continued as the No. 2 pair and went 1-2 at home, with the lone win coming over Nicholls. Senior
Elizabeth Moreland and junior
Brooke Hoven remained together, but moved up from No. 4 court to No. 3 court, going 2-1 with wins over Stephen F. Austin and Nicholls.
ULM tried a couple different combinations on the No. 4 and 5 courts at the Bayou Bash. Junior
Abigail Elder and sophomore
Kaitlyn Nowak remained together initially from the first weekend, moving from No. 3 court to No. 4 court. The pair lost Friday's match to SFA. On Saturday, Elder teamed with sophomore
Abbey Bufkin on No. 4 court, going 1-1 with a loss to Houston Baptist and a win over Nicholls. Bufkin had worked with freshman
Tamsie Black in the first weekend and last Friday's match vs. SFA. Nowak paired with sophomore
Madison Gray to go 1-1 as well with a loss to HBU and a win over Nicholls on No. 5 court.
Mercer is off to a 2-9 start to the season, picking up a win last Sunday over Jacksonville, 4-1, and a victory against Tusculum in Atlanta on Wednesday, 3-2.
No. 15 Pepperdine is 5-0, winning both matches last Saturday against Cal State L.A., 5-0, and Concordia (Calif.), 4-1. They also own victories over Pacific, Vanguard and CSU Bakersfield.
No. 19 South Carolina is 4-4 after a 1-3 weekend at TCU's Horned Frog Challenge last week. After opening with a 5-0 win over Central Arkansas, the Gamecocks lost to No. 5 TCU, 4-1, No. 19 Georgia State, 4-1, and No. 3 Florida State, 4-1. South Carolina has also won against No. 20 FGCU, Charleston and Mercer.
No. 5 LSU is 9-0, sweeping the Tiger Beach Challenge last weekend in Baton Rouge. The Tigers topped Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 4-1, Texas A&M-Kingsville, 5-0, Southern Miss, 5-0, No. 4 Loyola Marymount, 3-2 and SFA, 5-0. The Tigers won matches on opening weekend at Tulane against Nicholls, No. 17 Georgia State, Tulane and Spring Hill.
Links to live scoring for all four matches this weekend can be found on the beach volleyball schedule page at ULMWarhawks.com.
