CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - The No. 7 Nicholls State University beach volleyball team opened up play in the Southland Conference Tournament with a 3-0 loss to No. 2 HCU on Friday morning at Water's Edge Park.
With the loss, Nicholls (2-27) will take on New Orleans (19-16) at 12:15 p.m. on Saturday in an elimination match. UNO won all four meetings against the Colonels this season, winning three by the score of 5-0.
Against HCU (16-16), the Colonels dropped four of the five first sets with the exception being on the No. 1 court.
Katie Jones and
Kennedi Steele teamed up for a 21-19 victory versus Alison Stanfill and Maddie Butters, who earlier this week were named Southland Pair of the Year. The match went unfinished with Steele/Jones trailing 13-8 in the second set.
Taylor Heeb and
Kendall Battistella started things off on the No. 5 court and were defeated 21-6 and 21-15.
Alisha Wischkaemper and
McKay Wilson dropped both of their sets at No. 4, 21-12.
The deciding point came at No. 2 as
Aspen Steele and
Luciana Chuong came up short, 21-11 and 21-13, against Kristen Kleymeyer and Lindsay Harris.
The other unfinished match came at No. 3 where
McKenna Malone and
Bethanie Durant were down 21-14, 14-12.