BATON ROUGE, La. – Going up against some of the toughest competition their sport has to offer, the Texas A&M-Kingsville beach volleyball team suffered a trio of defeats on Saturday, falling to No. 4 LSU, 4-1, to No. 11 South Carolina 5-0 and to No. 20 Texas Christian, 3-2 at the LSU Beach Invitational in Baton Rouge, La.
TAMUK vs. No. 4 LSU
The Tigers' success started with their fourth and fifth flights. Olivia Beyer and Maddie Ligon won at No. 4, 21-14, 21-13 and Allison Coens and Hunter Domanski came out on top in the No. 5 slot, 21-17, 21-13. Niole Decker and Jeni Clark took the No. 6 match, 21-19, 21-8
The bright spot in the contest for the Javelinas came from their pairing at No. 2, senior Madison Brabham (Kingwood, Texas) and freshman Kylexus Block (San Antonio, Texas). They picked up their 12th victory of the season in straight sets by a score of 22-20, 21-18. By taking the matches at No. 1 and No. 3 however, LSU secured a 4-1 final.
TAMUK vs. No. 11 South Carolina
The Gamecocks became just the second team in 2019 to sweep the Javelinas and their triumph started with a 21-11, 21-13 score in the fourth flight. Freshmen Christina Gragasin (Celina, Texas) and Nicole Murff (San Antonio, Texas) battled back to take the second set in the fifth flight, 21-19, but Jess Vastine and Whitley Ballard edged them in the third frame for a 21-15, 19-21, 15-11 final.
Senior Haley Hutchinson (Georgetown, Texas) and sophomore Macy Berg (San Antonio, Texas) also put up a valiant fight in the third slot, pushing each set to extra points, but suffered a narrow defeat, 26-24, 22-20. Cadie Bates and Shannon Williams won the first flight for South Carolina and Lydia Dimke and Katie Smith collected the No. 2 match.
TAMUK vs. No. 20 TCU
In a tight battle with the Horned Frogs, the Javelinas nearly sprung the upset, as Gragasin and Murff combined to capture the fifth flight, 23-25, 21-18, 15-12, getting TAMUK on the board after TCU won the fourth match.
Brabham and Block logged their second victory of the day in the No. 2 match, winning this one by a score of 21-9, 21-15. Together, TAMUK's No. 2 pairing has totaled 10 victories over opponents from Division I programs in 2019. Despite those two triumphs, TCU secured the first and third flights and slipped away with a narrow victory.
The second tournament of the year at the Javelina Beach Courts is next on tap for the Blue and Gold and it begins on Friday, when the Javs will host Park University and Arizona State. You can stay current with everything related to Javelina Beach Volleyball by following @JavelinaBeach on Twitter and @javelinasports and @JavelinaBeach on Instagram, liking Javelina Sports on Facebook and visiting Javelinaathletics.com.
