20th Ranked TU Beach Volleyball Finishes off Their Own Tournament in Style
The 20th-ranked Tulane beach volleyball program posted a 2-1 record on the final day of the Green Wave Invitational Saturday. The Wave punctuated the day with a dominant 5-0 triumph over New Orleans at White Sands Volleyball Courts to move to 2-3 overall on the young season.
Tulane’s top flight of Katie Hansen and Emma Morris highlighted the day for Tulane as the duo went undefeated across their three duals. All three victories came via the sweep.
Day Two Starts on a High Note
Tulane opened the day with a 3-2 victory over Oregon to secure the team’s first triumph of the season. The Wave secured victories at the first, second, and fourth flights to notch the triumph. At the first flight, Katie Hansen and Emma Morris notched a sweep (21-16, 21-15). Skylar Ensign and Molly Trodd secured their own sweep at the No. 2 flight, outlasting a 24-22 battle in the first set before notching a 21-11 triumph in the second. Tulane dropped a sweep at the third flight and fell in three at the five, but at No. 4, Avery Burks and Gigi Gallegos earned a hard-fought three-set win to seal the dual. Despite Oregon edging out the first set 21-19, the pair rallied in the second for a 21-16 win to force the winner-take-all frame. This turned into a marathon that the Wave tandem won 19-17.
In the afternoon, Tulane battled South Florida for the first time as the Bulls are playing their inaugural season. It was another tight contest, but USF pulled out a 3-2 win. Hansen and Morris again tallied a sweep at the top flight with scores of 21-11 and 23-21. The Bulls won in a sweep at the second flight, but at No. 3 Amirah Ali and Sam O’Connor earned a 21-19, 21-10 sweep for Tulane. At the fourth pair, Burks and Gallegos battled hard to force a third set, dropping the first 21-15 before a 21-17 win in the second. The third frame turned into a marathon, but USF held just firm enough to win 20-18. The fifth flight also went three sets, but the Bulls won with scores of 21-17, 18-21, 15-10. The Wave did win the exhibition sixth flight as Gabbi Kucinski and Lauren Mann notched a 21-14, 21-8 sweep.
Shanghaiing the Privateers
The Wave closed out the day in fashion, dispatching crosstown foe New Orleans 5-0 without dropping a single set. Hansen and Morris posted their third sweep of the day at No. 1 (21-12, 21-14). At the second flight, Ensign and Trodd posted a 21-18, 21-15 victory. The third flight of Ali and O’Connor recorded their sweep via scores of 21-10 and 21-16. Kucinski and Mann swept at No. 4, 21-17 and 22-20. Closing out the full sweep of the Privateers was the fifth flight of McKenzie Cutler and Giorgia Walther as they notched set wins of 21-12 and 21-11. Even the exhibition sixth flight was a Tulane sweep, as Gabby Dwyer made her collegiate debut alongside Gallegos. They notched a 21-15, 21-6 triumph.
Next Up: A Trip to the State Capitol
No. 20 Tulane is back in action next weekend with a trip up to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for the Tiger Beach Challenge. The two-day event hosted by No. 12 LSU begins on Friday, February 27, with Tulane playing its opening dual of the event at 11:45 a.m. against North Alabama. The Wave will play twice on both Friday and Saturday.
Portions Courtesy Tulane Athletics
Doug has covered a gamut of sporting events in his fifty-plus years in the field. He started doing sideline reporting for Louisiana Tech football games for the student radio station. Doug was Sports Director for KNOE-AM/FM in Monroe in the mid-80s, winning numerous awards from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association for Best Sportscast and Best Play-by-Play. High school play-by-play for teams in Monroe, Natchitoches, New Orleans, and Thibodaux, LA dot his resume. He did college play-by-play for Northwestern State University in Natchitoches for nine years. Then, moving to the Crescent City, Doug did television PBP of Tulane games and even filled in for legendary Tulane broadcaster, Ken Berthelot in the only game Kenny ever missed while doing the Green Wave games. His father was an alumnus of Tulane in the 1940s, so Doug has attended Tulane football games in old Tulane Stadium, the Superdome, and Yulman. He was one of the 86,000 plus on December 1, 1973, sitting in the North End Zone to seeTulane shutout the LSU Tigers, 14-0. He was there when the Posse ruled Fogelman and in Turchin when the Wave made it to the World Series. He currently is the public address voice of the Tulane baseball team.