ULM beach volleyball broke even during Friday’s matches of the ULM Bayou Bash with a win against in-state opponent McNeese and a loss to Missouri State. The Warhawks (4-6; 0-1 Sun Belt Conference) swept the Cowgirls (1-11), winning every set. Kaylie Beck and Avery Hunter’s game-clinching 21-17, 21-12 victory meant the other two matches didn’t need a winner. Later, ULM faced Missouri State (13-2) for the second time this season, yet the Warhawks suffered the same 3-2 loss. After splitting matches 2-2, Kaitlyn Beck and Claire Williamson won set one but dropped set two. A scoring run by the Bears landed them at 15 points and ended ULM’s victory run on Friday.
The Bayou Bash was ULM beach volleyball’s first set of games after facing a gauntlet of top 25 teams in the Florida State Tournament. ULM battled against teams such as no. 17 Stetson, no. 19 Tampa, no. 4 Florida State and no. 16 Georgia State. Despite the losses, head coach Michael Hobson said that the team left with the experience of playing the best of the best.
“They didn’t notice the jersey on the other side of the net, and they were giving it all on the court,” Hobson said. “That’s the lesson I really wanted to take from that, and if we got one, we got one.”
ULM pushed Tampa (7-9) to a trio of set three scenarios and reached as close as a 15-10 set three against Florida State (14-1). Freshman blocker Eden Anderson said that she entered that weekend with the mindset of not having much to lose but having everything to gain.
“We gave everything we got and showed teams that we are better than they think we are,” Anderson said. “We proved ourselves a lot that past weekend and learned a lot about who we are and what we need to work on.”
The current roster consists of eight freshmen, six sophomores, a single junior and three seniors. With such a young lineup, leadership and discipline become priorities. Hobson said that while his upperclassmen have more experience, leadership falls on the entire team.
“Our leadership is a full team thing. It’s not one or two people,” Hobson said. “We don’t have captains. We make sure that everyone’s voice is heard and their values are seen.”
Anderson explained that everyone having the same responsibilities allows her to be successful on the sand.
“No matter who I’m playing with, I know they have my back, I have their back, and all around we have each other’s,” Anderson said.
