Beach Volleyball's Mergener, Mertz Earn CCSA All-Tournament Honors
Apr 23, 2017 | Women's Beach Volleyball
EMERSON, Ga. – In a weekend of firsts, Tulane's beach volleyball team reached another program milestone on Sunday afternoon at the Lakepoint Sporting Community, naming two players to the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association All-Tournament Team for the first time in program history.
The Green Wave's No. 3 pairing of Tarin Mergener and Madeline Mertz were among seven pairs honored for their weekend accomplishments following the championship match between Florida State and FIU.
"I'm very proud of how Maddy and Tarin have worked to develop their partnership since we paired them recently," head coach Wayne Holly said. "While all of our pairs are instrumental to our team success, these two women earned us the most dual match points this weekend and played consistently well over the course of the tournament."
On court three, Mergener and Mertz posted a team-leading 3-1 record in their first CCSA Championship as a pair, playing an integral role in Tulane's upset victory over No. 12 South Carolina and match sweep over UNC Wilmington on Saturday.
The duo's sole loss of the weekend came in a three-set battle with No. 1 seeded Florida State, Tulane's opening draw in the tournament, as the two came within points of an upset over the No. 4 team in the nation. To close out competition on Friday, Mergener and Mertz became the only Tulane pair to knock off the Panthers of FIU, putting together another solid outing to seal a straight-set victory on scores of 21-19 and 21-16.
Tulane's No. 3 pair would complete their second match sweep of the weekend in their Saturday opener, downing UNCW's Katie McCullough and Sarah Kelley, 21-17 and 21-13, to turn in the Green Wave's first win of the dual.
Mergener and Mertz closed out their stay at the CCSA Conference Championships on Saturday afternoon, upending South Carolina's Macie Tendrich and Katie Zimmerman to give Tulane a chance to steal the dual from the Gamecocks. After dropping a nail-biting 23-21 set one, the pair bounced back in set two with a commanding 21-11 finish to even the match at one apiece. Mergener and Mertz gave Tulane a 2-1 lead in the dual with a 15-13 decision in the third set.
Tulane will close out the 2017 beach volleyball season at the New Orleans Duals, taking on Houston Baptist and UNO at 1:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m., respectively, on the Privateers' Lakefront campus next Saturday, April 29. Following the match, the Green Wave will honor five graduating seniors.
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