Students at ULM were able to enjoy an athletic event that had not occurred in two years. The ULM beach volleyball team showed off their talent against the University of New Orleans in front of a healthy sized crowd.

Head coach Patrick Hiltz talked about the impact of playing at home for his team.

“I have to start by saying thank you. ULM staff from many different departments helped make our home beach courts look fantastic,” Hiltz said. “Our fans were great, and I know it helped us play as well as we did.”

Thursday was the team’s first home match since April 15, 2015 when they also defeated New Orleans by the same score, 5-0.

The match started off with wins by the pairing of Delaney Driver and Gabby Love followed by the pairing of Bailey Smith and Grace Convey.

For Convey and Smith, winning is nothing new as they have yet to lose a match all season advancing to five straight wins.

The only pair to lose a set in all five matches was the number one pairing of Hadley Swartz and Kori Simpson although they still won their match to give the Warhawks the 5-0 sweep.

“I couldn’t be happier with the way we played at all spots today. Our side-out game looked really good, and I saw several times where we used some of the shots and strategies that we worked on in practice this week,” coach Hiltz said.

ULM now moves to 8-0 all time at home and 7-0 all time against New Orleans. The ladies improved their individual home match record to 31-9 and look to continue their success as they gear up for the Houston Baptist tournament.

Coach Hiltz expanded on how proud of his team he is, and what they need to expect out of one another looking ahead to next week.

“I feel like we continue to improve each week,” coach Hiltz said. “Next week we will have to play just the way we did today, but we will add some more tools to our toolboxes during practice that we can utilize in the games as well.”

In the tournament, the Warhawks will face off against New Orleans again as well as Texas A&M- Kingsville, Houston Baptist and Texas A&M- Corpus Christi.

After the Houston Baptist tournament, ULM returns home to host a tournament of their own, the Bayou Beach Bash.

The tournament will start on Friday, March 31 at 9 a.m. and feature Central Arkansas, TCU, Houston Baptist and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.