BATON ROUGE, La. – The University of New Orleans (3-7) heads to the first of two tournaments at Mango's Beach Volleyball Club this weekend to take on #RV College of Charleston (7-3) and No. 10 LSU (7-9) Saturday at 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., respectively, and No. 17 Stetson University (10-5) and Spring Hill College (6-3) Sunday at 1 and 3 p.m. in the LSU Tiger Beach Challenge.
Attendance is free at Mango's Beach Volleyball Club.
Three of the four opponents are receiving votes in the AVCA Beach Volleyball national rankings; LSU is No. 10, Stetson is No. 17 and College of Charleston is receiving votes.
LAST TIME OUT
Jordan Schumacher and
Kaitlyn Grice rallied from 1-0 deficit to defeat College of Charleston's Taylor Foley and Logan Manusky 13-21, 21-16, 15-9 at No. 5 Wednesday but the Cougars upended the Privateers 4-1 in the first of two matchups.
ABOUT THE PRIVATEERS
Madison Miller and
Brianna Vega are 6-3 as a duo with three wins in each of No. 3 and No. 4. Twins
Veronica Corcoran and
Victoria Corcoran were split with
Cara Sander and
Rachel Kuhn with Veronica and Rachel at the top flight and Victoria and Cara at No. 2 Wednesday.
Schumacher and Grice are 5-5,
Ally Carr and
Rhyan Rand are 4-1 highlighted by a 4-0 weekend in Kingsville last week.
ABOUT THE COUGARS
Receiving votes in the AVCA poll, the Cougars took Wednesday's match 4-1 with the top two flights needing three sets to determine a winner. Devon Rachel and McKaia Rhodes won their first match at No. 1 and lead the club with a 7-3 mark. Rianna Brennan and Kennedy Madison are 6-4 at No. 3, Allison Beckman and Lauren Freed are 6-4 at No. 4 and Foley and Manusky are 5-4 at No. 5.
SERIES
The meeting at the Privateer beach courts was the first between New Orleans and CofC.
ABOUT THE TIGERS
Ranked No. 10 nationally despite a 7-9 mark, LSU is making its home debut this weekend after visits to Phoenix, St. Augustine, Florida, Manhattan Beach, California and Columbia, South Carolina. The court one duo of Claire Coppola and Kristen Nuss went 4-0 in the Gamecock Invitational last week to earn Coastal Collegiate Sports Association and AVCA/CollegeBeachVB.com Pair of the Week with three wins over top-15 teams. The duo is 8-4 in the top flight.
Emmy Allen and Megan Davenport are 5-1 at No. 4 and Allen individually has a team-high nine wins.
SERIES
LSU leads the series 6-0 and Saturday marks the first meeting since April 30, 2016. The Tigers and Privateers will meet at the Battle on the Bayou later in the year.
ABOUT THE HATTERS
With seven consecutive victories, Stetson moved up to No. 17 in the AVCA national poll. Three pairs have surpassed the 10-win mark – Sunniva Helland-Hansen and Carly Perales (12-3 overall, 7-3 at No. 1), Darby Dunn and Sammee Thomas (11-4 overall, 8-2 at No. 2) and Samantha Harris and Rachel Noble (10-5 overall, 9-4 at No. 3). Quinci Barker and Rebecca Ingram have won seven consecutive matches.
SERIES
Stetson won the lone meeting March 13, 2016 in Baton Rouge (5-0).
ABOUT THE BADGERS
Spring Hill escaped Digs Volleyball Complex with a 3-2 victory over the Privateers in the season-opening New Orleans Invitational. Emmarose Neibert and Emily Sullivan are 7-1 at No. 5.
SERIES
UNO trails the series 8-1 with the lone win coming March 18, 2016 in the Pelican Classic. Earlier this month, Kuhn and Sander took the top flight 21-18, 22-20 and Vega and Miller won No. 4 21-17, 18-21, 15-10.
NEXT UP
Following Sunday's matches, UNO takes a week off before participating in the Green Wave Invitational April 7-8.
SOCIAL MEDIA
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@PrivateersBeach on Twitter,
@PrivateersBeach on Instagram, like
/PrivateersVolleyball on Facebook and subscribe to the
PrivateerAthletics YouTube channel.
