Sand VBall Heads East for Gamecock Invitational
Mar 19, 2015 | Women's Beach Volleyball
NEW ORLEANS - Starting Friday, the Tulane women's sand volleyball team (6-3) will head out to Columbia, South Carolina, for the three-day Gamecock Invitational. The University of South Carolina will play host to not only Tulane, but also Arizona State, Carson-Newman, No. 4 Florida State, Georgia State and UAB, at the Carolina Sand Volleyball Complex.
"We have six very good sand volleyball programs in front of us this weekend, each of which is trying to get closer to a bid to nationals by defeating us," Tulane head coach Wayne Holly said. "That's a challenge we're excited to meet."
The Green Wave are 6-3 on the year and are coming off of a 3-2 stint last weekend at their home event, the Pelican Classic. The court four tandem of Courtney Liddle and Annie Shurtz shone bright, as they finished the tournament 5-0 to improve their overall record to a team best, 7-2.
Tea Juric and Jackie Wegner also moved up to court No. 1 last weekend, where after a loss to Louisiana-Monroe, the Tulane duo won three consecutive matches via straight-sets, winning by a combined margin of 126-87.
The Wave will kick-off the tournament on Friday at 10:30 a.m. CT vs. Carson-Newman (0-0). Then, the Olive and Blue will have a giant opportunity when they battle No. 4 Florida State (5-3) at 3:45 p.m.
On Saturday, Tulane faces South Carolina (7-2) at 10:30 a.m. The Gamecocks are in their second season and have returned all 18 players from last year's 5-12 team. Next, Tulane finishes its day with Georgia State (8-1) at 3:45 p.m.
Sunday presents two familiar foes for the Wave in Arizona State (1-2) and UAB (1-3), competing against them at 7 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., respectively. The Olive and Blue defeated the Sun Devils 3-2 back on March 6, receiving wins from the pairings of Lan Nguyen/Madeline Mertz, Hannah Holmes/Grace Weaver and Sarah Strasner/Miah Diirell. Meanwhile, Tulane will seek revenge against a UAB squad that upset them 3-2 on March 13 at home.
"We can't wait to get to South Carolina to compete as hard as we can and play every point as though it's our last," Holly stated. "I expect our team will travel very well this weekend to do precisely what we train very hard every day to do, which is to succeed."
For all tournament updates, fans can check out the Gamecock Invitational tournament central page at: http://www.gamecocksonline.com/sports/w-svolley/spec-rel/15-gamecock-invitational.html
