San Luis Obispo, California – Looking to grab two Top-20 wins and their first Top-10 win of the season, the Washington Husky Beach Volleyball team started the Cal Poly Mustang Invitational off with No. 20 Tulane and No. 9 California. With high hopes going into the day, the Huskies fell short to both teams.
“Tough day today,” Head Coach Derek Olsen said, “Not to make excuses but we were hit pretty hard this week with illness so girls are not playing at 100%. It sucks but that’s athletics and it’s part of it.”
He was hopeful for the team’s response against UC Davis and Cal Poly in day two of the tournament. “We will see how we respond tomorrow,” Olsen said, “We definitely have our work cut out for us tomorrow but I love the fight in this team. Still a lot of season left.”
Tulane
To start off the day the Huskies faced No. 20 ranked Tulane. In hopes to grab a top-20 win the Huskies started off strong with three first-set wins. Unfortunately, the Green Wave responded and took the match 3-2.
The first pair to finish up was Washington’s Piper Monk-Heidrich and Kendall Mather at the No. 2 pair. The pair took on Tulane’s Mehlman/Heintzelman and won in a swift 21-12, 21-16 to give the Huskies their first point. Next to finish up was the No. 5 pair Hannah Yerex and Shannon Gormally who faced off against Torruella/Popovic. The pair lost 10-21, 18-21.
On court 3, Scarlett Dahl and Paloma Bowman took care of business against Hall/Speicher winning their game 21-6, 23-21 to give the Huskies their second point.
On court No. 4, Teagan DeFalco and Maeve Griffin worked themselves into a battle vs Mares/Jackson. The Huskies dropped the first set 17-21 but responded by taking the second 21-15. Tulane prevailed in the tiebreak set 15-9.
Now tied at 2 points apiece, the game came down to the No. 1 pair. Chloe Loreen and Natalie Robinson took on Tulane’s Ebertin/Peters. The Huskies took the first set in a dominant 21-9 performance but dropped the second 23-25. The Huskies battled in the tiebreak set but fell short 16-18 to give Tulane the match win.
California
For game two of the day, the Huskies were eager to get their first top-10 win of the season. Washington was looking for revenge after facing California earlier this season and falling short. Unfortunately, the Huskies found themselves with the same outcome the second time around.
The first pair to finish up was Huskies Piper Monk-Heidrich and Kendall…
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