Beach Volleyball To Open 2017 Campaign At Blazer Beach Duals

NEW ORLEANS – The University of New Orleans beach volleyball team will open the 2017 season on Friday, March 3, when the Privateers travel to Birmingham, Ala., to face Mercer in day one of the Blazer Beach Duals at the UAB West Campus Athletic Complex.

The season-opener against the Bears is slated for 4 p.m. (CST) while UNO will take on host UAB on Saturday at 10 a.m. before closing out tourney play at 2 p.m. against Austin Peay.

"This team is the most established and experienced beach team we've had so far," Privateers head coach Millicent Van Norden said. "With our returners and extremely experienced new additions to the program, I am excited to be competing for a team win in each and every competition. Our goal is to win every match we play this weekend. We want to approach these competitions as fighters ready to outwork our opponent for each point."

In its second season on the dunes last year, New Orleans went 3-16 but showed steady improvement as the season progressed. The Privateers won at least one pairs contest in 10 of their 18 matches and three of the defeats were of the 3-2 variety where a two-point swing at any point of those contests could have turned a loss into a victory.

Back for the New Orleans squad are seniors Brooklyn Frank, Lauren Levy and Courtney Roblez, redshirt-junior Cara Sander, and sophomores Blessing Dunn, Kaitlin Grice, Maddison Miller and Samantha Uline. Joining the team for the 2017 beach season are freshmen Veronica and Victoria Corcoran along with rookie Rhyan Rand.

"This is a special group of young women who train had and aspire to change the face of our program," Van Norden added. "I am excited for our first outing and know that we will compete and grow in each match. Our beach program has a schedule full of opportunities to compete against ranked and unranked teams alike. This weekend we are playing three programs that have a lot of similarities to us. I believe we match up well with all of them and will need to be consistent and aggressive to win each match."

Following the weekend in Birmingham, UNO returns to action on Saturday, March 11, when the Privateers head to Gulf Shores, Ala., to take part in the Badger Beach Bash. From there, New Orleans will play at ULM on Thursday, March 16.