Tulane Beach Volleyball's First NCAA Ends Quickly vs. UCLA, 3-0
The Tulane beach volleyball team's first NCAA tournament visit to Gulf Shores, Alabama ran into a buzzsaw named UCLA as the Green Wave lost 3-0 in dual matches to the long-time post-season participant.
The Bruins claimed the first point of the contest at the fifth flight, where the UCLA pair bested Lauren Mann and Avery Burks in straight sets, 21-12 and 21-13. The Bruins earned their next point at the top flight, as Molly Trodd and Skylar Ensign dropped a 21-16, 21-14 match. Emma Morris and Katie Hansen fell 21-10 in the first set at No. 2. Though the second team pushed back in the second frame, UCLA held on to claim a 21-16 win that sealed the dual for the Bruins.
A Post-Season of Firsts
Though short-lived, the Tulane beach volleyball team made some noise as their season wound down. The Green Wave finished the regular season 22-13 with an unspectacular 1-4 record in Conference-USA competition. The Wave play beach volleyball in C-USA because the American Conference does not have enough beach volleyball teams in the league.
Once the Green Wave entered the conference tournament in Youngstown, Louisiana, though, it was like a light switch was turned on. The 5th seeded Wave torched the rest of C-USA, winning all but one dual match out of four team setups, sweeping defending champion FAU, 3-zip to claim Tulane's first ever league trophy. That sent the Green Wave off to the NCAA Tournament, another first for the 12-year old program.
The Wave were slated as the 14th seed out of 16-teams, which matched Tulane up against perennial beach volleyball powerhouse UCLA, who had won the trophy in 2018 and 2019 and had made the tournament every year since the inception of the tourney in 2016.
The scrappy Tulane team was able to make a game of every point in a match with the exclusion of the 5th team setup.
Tulane 0, UCLA 3
1 – Maggie Boyd / Sally Perez (UCLA) def. Molly Trodd / Skylar Ensign (TULN) 21-16, 21-14
2 – Ensley Alden / Kaley Matthews (UCLA) def. Emma Morris / Katie Hansen (TULN) 21-10, 21-16
3 – Amirah Ali / Tawny Ensign (TULN) vs. Harper Cooper / Alexa Fernandez (UCLA) 20-22, 11-16 (unfinished)
4 – McKenzie Cutler / Sam O’Connor (TULN) vs. Ava Williamson / Jesse Dueck (UCLA) 26-24, 12-9 (unfinished)
5 – Kenzie Brower / Mallory LaBreche (UCLA) def. Lauren Mann / Avery Burks (TULN) 21-12, 21-13
Head coach Eyal Zimet was named earlier Saturday as the CUSA Coach of the Year as Trodd, S. Ensign, Hansen, and Morris all secured First-Team All-CUSA honors. Ali was tabbed to the All-CUSA Second Team.
Portions Courtesy Tulane Athletics
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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.