Heath Hutcheson, Campus Carrier sports editor
Berry’s Beach Volleyball had an eventful weekend as they traveled to Montgomery, Alabama on Saturday. They played two matches against Division III school Huntingdon College and Division II school Spring Hill College. Assistant Coach J.T. Oates spoke on his views about how he felt the weekend went.
“Our coming weekend is our D-III only tournament and so, we went into this past weekend with a preparation mindset,” Oates said. “Spring Hill challenged us a lot, but Huntingdon gave us a good idea of how this upcoming weekend is going to be.”
At Huntingdon, the first pair consisted of two freshmen, Kaylee Howell and Becky Blaydes who were victorious at their game. The entire match at Huntingdon ended in a 5-0 victory with each of the other four pairs also winning their games. The other fourth pairs consisted of junior Bella Boston and sophomore Kara Schmit, sophomore Kat Kelyman and freshman Grace Mau, junior Lindsey MacDiarmid and freshman Sabine Rudolph, and finally senior Olivia Mallow and freshman Andrea Hurt.
“A lot of our beach volleyball players are freshmen, which to me is exciting,” Oates said. “We get to have them for the next four years, so what they do now is just scratching the surface of what they’ll be able to do later, and they’ve done really well. Having freshmen that are so excited to get better every day is really fun for us.”
As Coach Oates had previously mentioned, Spring Hill posed more of a challenge for the team, with Berry falling 0-5 against the Badgers. However, the Vikings put up a strong fight with Kat Kelyman and Grace Mau coming close to winning their game as it went into three rounds.
On Friday, Berry will be playing against Huntingdon again, as well as Lynchburg, this time at home. As of this point in the season, only three weeks remain before beach volleyball’s national championship on Apr. 13 where they will travel to Tavares, Florida to play.
“I think right now, we’re at a point where we have had some growth and we’re going to see a lot more,” Oates said. “We’re only really getting two weekends to solidify as a team before the big match, but I’m very excited.”