Tulane Beach Volleyball Introduces Six Newcomers for 2025-26
Tulane University head beach volleyball coach Eyal Zimet is proud to introduce six newcomers to his 2025-26 Green Wave team. The class of new players includes two freshmen and four transfers, including three graduate students. New to the wave this year are Amirah Ali (Gr.), Gabby Dwyer (Fr.), Katie Hansen (Jr.), Gabbi Kucinski (Fr.), Emma Morris (Gr.), and Giorgia Walther (Gr.).
Zimet Pumped to Add These Names
"With the addition of our 2025 incoming class to our experienced core of returning student-athletes, we are thrilled to add depth and intensify the competition for every minute on the sand!” said Zimet. “We are super excited to have this special group of competitive, hard-working, self-driven, kind, and intelligent young ladies, who are as passionate about beach volleyball as we are, join our Green Wave family! Roll Wave!"
The New Wave Beach Volleyballers
Amirah Ali is a graduate student from Murrieta, California. She comes to Uptown from the University of Hawai’i, where she competed for four years and earned her degree in Psychology. During her time with the Rainbow Wahine, she helped the team to three NCAA Tournament appearances and a Big West title. Ali’s debut match and first win as a freshman was against No. 1 UCLA. She competed primarily at the No. 1 and 2 seeds and earned key wins over nationally ranked opponents in her junior season. A consistent Dean’s List student and three-time Big West Commissioner’s Honor Roll honoree, Ali now pursues her MBA at Tulane with aspirations of a career in HR management.
Gabby Dwyer is a freshman from Fort Myers, Florida. Dwyer played both indoor and beach volleyball at Fort Myers High School and was named Player of the Year in beach while earning All-Area Team honors all four years, adding two All-Area Team nods in indoor. Between the two teams, she won four district championships and a regional title while finishing fourth at state championships. As a senior in beach volleyball, Dwyer went undefeated. Her mother, Kristina Dwyer, was a member of the golf team at the University of Arizona. Dwyer intends to major in homeland security at Tulane with plans to join the FBI or be a detective or investigator.
Katie Hansen is a junior from Austin, Texas. She transfers to the Wave from Stephen F. Austin (SFA), where she competed as part of the No. 1 pair during both her freshman and sophomore seasons. She earned a spot on the 2025 Preseason Southland Conference (SLC) Watch List and was named to the All-Conference Second Team for flight 1 in the 2025 season. Over her first two collegiate seasons, Hansen recorded the most wins as a pair at SFA, highlighting her consistency and competitive edge on the court. Her standout performances include notable victories over top programs such as Texas, Coastal Carolina, South Carolina, and Boise State.
Gabbi Kucinski is a freshman from Buckeye, Arizona. She played both beach and indoor volleyball all four years at Millennium High School. In beach, Kucinski was named Offensive Player of the Year as a senior and All-Region Player of the Year as a junior. She added three First-Team All-Region selections while earning All-Academic Team recognition all four years. She earned a pairs semis appearance her junior year alongside a team semis appearance, which followed her Tigers squad reaching the quarterfinals her sophomore campaign. With the indoor team, Kucinski secured State Championship Runner-up finishes all four seasons. She intends to major in exercise science at Tulane with aspirations of becoming a physical therapist for a sports team.
Emma Morris is a graduate student from Haymarket, Virginia. She played four years of beach volleyball at Stanford University. Morris was named to the All-Pac-12 Freshman Team in her first season and later served as team captain during her senior year. Throughout her career, Morris helped lead the program to its first-ever top-three national ranking and consistently competed against some of the strongest teams in the country. After medically redshirting her sophomore year due to illness, she returned to make an impact on the court. Morris graduated with a degree in Computer Science, focusing on Human-Computer Interaction, while balancing the demands of a rigorous academic and athletic schedule. Hailing from an athletic family, both of her parents played collegiate sports. Her father, Greg Morris, was a pitcher for the Washington State baseball team, and her mother, Amy Morris, was a pitcher for the George Mason softball team.
Giorgia Walther is a graduate student from Cannobio, Italy. She earned her bachelor’s degree in international management from St. John’s University, where she competed on the indoor volleyball team. She was named to the BIG EAST All-Freshman Team in 2021, earned Unanimous All-BIG EAST honors in 2022, and was recognized as an AVCA East Coast All-Region Honorable Mention. Walther finished her collegiate career ranked fifth in program history in kills. She developed a passion for beach volleyball during summers back home in Italy and is now excited to bring that energy and experience into this new chapter. Walther’s father, Stefan, is a former Serie C basketball player.
Numbers are Growing
With these six additions to the squad, the Green Wave roster features 16 total players entering the 2025 fall season. An experienced team, six of the players are seniors or graduate students. The Wave enters the fall slate looking to build off a successful 2025 spring campaign that saw Tulane capture a program-record 29 wins was part of a 29-11 overall clip. The Wave advanced to the finals of the Conference USA Championships to cap off the season. Tulane begins its 2025 fall schedule this Saturday, October 18, with a trip to Birmingham, Alabama, to participate in a one-day event hosted by UAB.
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.