MONROE, La. – The ULM beach volleyball team is set to open up the 2017 season with eight returning players in the sport's second year as fully sanctioned NCAA sport with a national championship.
SEASON OUTLOOK
Last Year: The Warhawks finished the 2016 season with an 11-17 overall record. The team played no dual matches at home, only competing on the road. ULM competed against 12 ranked teams and three teams that were receiving votes last season.
2017 Schedule: The Warhawks will host one dual against New Orleans and, after the addition of three new courts during the offseason, a duals tournament for the first time in school history. The Bayou Beach Bash will feature five different teams including: ULM, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Central Arkansas, Houston Baptist and TCU. The full Bayou Beach Bash schedule can be found here.The remainder of the team's schedule will be on the road with six different dual tournaments and one dual match. The full schedule can be seen here.
Returners: ULM boasts a team of eight returners, including: Delaney Driver, Kori Simpson, Bailey Smith, Claire Crossfield, Hadley Swartz, Tara Jenkins, Catherine Griffith and Rebecca Brown.
Newcomers: New to the program this year are two freshmen, a sophomore transfer, and a senior. The lone transfer on the team is Gabby Love who transferred from University of Arkansas-Fort Smith after playing indoor volleyball there for a year. Senior Ana Ribiero is making the transition from the indoor team. Holland Ponthieux is one of the freshman that came to the Warhawks from the Home School Association. Rounding out the freshman class for ULM is Australian native Grace Convey.
FROM COACH HILTZ
About preseason: I'm really pleased with the way that preseason has gone. Everything that we have worked on and trained for when we go to scrimmage situations, the things that we have worked on in practice, are now showing up in the team play. The transfer from drill to game play is huge for us. Our preseason has improved us, but we are ready to see some different faces on the other side of the net.
About the seniors: We are tight as a team and I think that our senior leadership helps with that. We are definitely going to need our seniors to step up and have our seniors show the younger players this is how it works and this is what we want do.
From last year to this year: We ended last year on a good note because we got comfortable with what we needed to do in order to win games. Now hopefully the returners can take what they finished with last season and kick us off this season with that attitude.
About the pairs: I am happy with the pairs that we have and when we're at full strength and 100 percent I think that we're going to be really hard to beat. On our roster anyone in the one-through-12 positions can be move around and play at any spot in our lineup at any time and that is a luxury. The chemistry between the pairs is also big and I think that the pairs that we have should work well together. They should be able to keep each other motivated, competitive and at the same time enjoy it.
