KINGSVILLE, Texas – The Javelina Beach Courts will come alive for the first time in 2018 as the Texas A&M-Kingsville beach volleyball team hosts the Emerald Beach Hotel Classic, which is set for Friday beginning at 10 a.m. and Saturday starting at 9 a.m.
Four teams will be visiting Kingsville for this event and each squad will lock horns with the Javelinas. First up for TAMUK will be Missouri Baptist at 2 p.m. on Friday, followed by a battle with Stevenson University at 6 p.m. On Saturday, the Hoggies are scheduled to take Huntingdon College at 10 a.m. and Principia at 1 p.m.
The Javelinas opened the season in Fort Worth at the Horned Frog Challenge hosted by TCU, where the Hoggies faced two of Division I's top 15 teams. Despite losing all three matches at the TCU Beach Courts, the Javelinas hung tough in each contest. Their first time out, which was against the event's host school, freshmen Tenley Housler and Erin Umbel won their match, 21-15, 14-21, 15-7. The next day, the Javs took on the University of Louisiana-Monroe in their final contest in the Metroplex and they went toe-to-toe with the Warhawks. Madison Brabham and Macy Berg, along with Housler and Umbel both took sets and seven other sets were decided by four points or less.
Three of the four teams in town for this event visited Kingsville a season ago, with Huntingdon being the lone exception. The Hawks, much like the Javelinas are in their second season of competition. Their inaugural campaign was not without its fair share of hiccups, as Latonia Brady's crew concluded the season at 2-19. This year's squad includes seven first-year players and the Hawks will be looking to pick up their first win of the season this weekend after dropping their first match on Feb. 24th against Mercer.
For Missouri Baptist, their opener against Kingsville will be the first time they take the court in 2018. Last season when these program's met the Javelinas collected a 3-2 win, as the teams of Kat Evans and Kadi Shipman, Haley Hutchinson and Maelee Sowa and Madison Brabham and Paige Lanam all collected points for the Javelinas.
Stevenson University became the first Division III team to offer beach volleyball when they launched the program in 2015. The Mustangs went 1-5 in their first season but they bounced back with a 13-10 campaign a year later that concluded with a 5-0 win over the Morgan State Bears, a Division I club. Last season, the Mustangs kicked-off the year in Kingsville at the STA Newman Hall Beach Volleyball Invitational, where the Hoggies defeated them twice.
Principia is entering its third year of collegiate competition in the sand and they'll attempting to craft a winning record for the first time after going 0-9 and 4-16 in their first two seasons. Coach Mary Ann Sprague brought back eight members of last year's squad, but also infused new life to the tune of seven fresh faces. They'll be trying to change the script in Kingsville after the Javs handed them a 5-0 loss last season.
Once action concludes for the Javelines on both days, Javelinaathletics.com is where you'll find complete recap. To stay up-to-date with everything related to Javelina beach volleyball, visit Javelinaathletics.com, follow @JavelinaBeach on Twitter and @JavelinaBeach on Instagram and like the /JavelinaSports Facebook page.
