Arizona beach volleyball hit the road for first time this season and faced Long Beach State and Irvine Valley College in Irvine, Calif. Arizona split the two-game road trip after a nip and tuck loss against Long Beach State, 2-3, and sweep against Irvine Valley College.
The ‘Cats performance was led by the No. 1 pair Natalie Anselmo and Olivia MacDonald. The sophomore-senior pair defeated LBSU’s Rachel Nieto and Nele Barber in a two-set sweep. The pair won 21-19 in the first set and 21-16 in the second set.
This season, sophomore Anselmo saw the spotlight as she moved up to the No. 1 ranked-pair after playing on the exhibition team during her freshman year. She has made a solid paring with senior MacDonald, contributing to the Wildcats’ overall 6-2 record on the season.
The Sand Cats got their second win of the match from the No. 2 ranked-pair Kacey Nady and Olivia Hallaran. The pair lost to LBSU’s Hailey Harward and Kristyna Adamcikova 19-21 in the first set but was able to bounce back to win sets two and three 21-16 and 22-20, respectively.
Senior Hailey Devlin and freshman Makenna Martin fought a close battle against LBSU’s Nicci Reinking and Zoi Konstantopoulou but dropped both sets 21-16 and 21-17.
The ‘Cats were not able to win the best three-out-of-five match against Long Beach State, giving them their second consecutive loss, after losing to LMU on Saturday by a score of 1-4, and second loss on the season in total.
However, the Sand Cats rebounded with a dominant performance against Irvine Valley College. They defeated IVC by a sweep of 5-0 thanks strong efforts by all five Wildcat pairs.
MacDonald and Anselmo, defeated IVC’s Taira Ka’awaloa and Megan Ramseyer by a score of 21-9 in the first set and 21-11 in the second set. The pair’s win against Irvine Valley made them undefeated on the team’s first road trip to Calif.
The ‘Cats No. 5 pair, Jonny Baham and Stephany Purdue, had an outstanding performance against IVC’s Diamond Brogan and Jade Parham. The freshman-senior combo won 21-12 in the first set and 21-8 in the second set.
The ‘Cats play again on March 17 against Texas Christian University in the Cal Poly Tri-Match in San Luis Obispo, Calif.
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