Prior to the weekend, the Southern Miss beach volleyball team was coming off two wins over Missouri Baptist and Tusculum on March 15 and March 16 However, Southern Miss dropped four of five contests at the Tiger Beach Challenge at LSU from March 22-23.
The Golden Eagles started play with contests against Tulane and No. 19 Georgia State. Southern Miss struggled in this game with a shutout score of 0-5.
In the first contest against Tulane, Southern Miss could not manage to get anything going up until the middle of the game, but that was not enough as they lost 1-4. Kylie Grandy and Lindsey Legg did provide a win for the team. The pair come in with scores of 21-13, 9-21 and 15-11 for the game but it was not enough to give the team an overall win.
Against Georgia State, the Golden Eagles were swept 5-0.
The pairs of Jessica Austin/Madison Lawler, and Breleigh Favre/Kellie Garraway fell in two sets to Georgia State, while the duos of Kylie Grandy/Lindsey Legg, Abbey Wilson/Piper Matsumoto and Olivia Hepworth/Cyan Blackdeer all lost in three sets.
Southern Miss got its first win against Spring Hill on Saturday with a final score of 3-2. Madison Lawler and Jessica Austin both got off to a hot start to help their team edge out the victory with scores of 21-17 and 21-15. Grandy/Legg also won with results of 22-20, 14-21 and 15-9, while Wilson/Matsumoto won in two sets 23-21 and 21-19.
For match two of the day, Southern Miss went up against North Florida. The Golden Eagles got swept by a score of 5-0. North Florida swept in all pairings, including three two-set wins against the Golden Eagles.
In the final matchup, Southern Miss went up against No. 4 LSU. The Golden Eagles dropped the contest against the Tigers 4-1. The fourth pairing of Hepworth/Blackdeer earned the only win for Southern Miss in the contest with scores of 23-21, 12-21, 15-13. LSU won each of their four wins against the Golden Eagles in two sets.
Southern Miss will be back in Hattiesburg on April 6 for two matchups against Spring Hill. The first contest is set for 11 a.m., followed by a 1 p.m. matchup.
