MONROE, La. – The ULM beach volleyball team heads to Baton Rouge to compete in the LSU Beach Invitational, taking on two Top-10 foes in their four matches.
The Warhawks (5-10 overall) open play with a rematch against No. 2 TCU at 11 a.m. Saturday before facing tournament host and No. 6 LSU at 4 p.m. ULM then meets Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 12 p.m. Sunday before wrapping up play in Baton Rouge with Tampa at 2 p.m. Sunday.
ULM is coming off a 1-3 showing at the Fight In The Fort at TCU. ULM fell to New Orleans in the opener, 3-2, before bouncing back with a 5-0 sweep of Stephen F. Austin. ULM was unable to take a point on Sunday, dropping a pair of 5-0 decisions to Arizona State and No. 3 TCU.
The most successful pairs for ULM last week were seniors
Kayla Gallant and
Rylin Adams along with junior
Abigail Elder and sophomore
Abbey Bufkin. Gallant and Adams won their first match on Court 3 against UNO before getting bumped to Court 2 and earning a win against SFA. Elder and Bufkin won a pair of matches on Court 5.
TCU improved to 19-0 last week with a clean sweep of the Fight In The Fort, winning all four matches by 5-0 scores. The Horned Frogs lost just two sets all weekend last week, winning 40 out of 42 sets contested.
LSU is 16-2 after playing in The March to May last week in Gulf Shores, Alabama. The Tigers went 3-2 on the weekend with losses to No. 11 Florida Atlantic, 3-2, and No. 1 UCLA, 4-1. The Tigers defeated No. 13 Georgia State, No. 7 Grand Canyon and No. 15 South Carolina, all by 4-1 scores, to move to 16-2. LSU swept ULM, 5-0, at the Gamecock Beach Bash on March 12.
A&M-Corpus Christi is 13-6 overall after sweeping a midweek doubleheader from Abilene Christian, 5-0, and winning two matches at the Fight In The Fort. The Islanders lost to Arizona State, 4-1, and TCU, 5-0, but beat SFA, 3-2, and New Orleans, 4-1. The Islanders defeated ULM in the first dual of the season, 4-1, at the HBU Tournament.
Tampa is 8-5 overall and has won back-to-back matches coming into the Baton Rouge. The Spartans defeated Florida Southern, 4-1, and Jacksonville, 5-0, on Sunday, going 2-3 at the Stetson Spring Fling. It is the first meeting between ULM and Tampa this season.
