The Florida Atlantic beach volleyball team, ranked No. 16, lost both of its matches on March 27 during the opening day of the Texas Invitational in Austin. The team was defeated by No. 3 University of Southern California with a score of 5-0 and by No. 10 Long Beach State with a score of 5-0 at ATX Beach.
These results bring Florida Atlantic’s season record to 13 wins and nine losses, while USC improved to a record of 19-3 and Long Beach State moved to 17-5 this season.
In the first match against USC, the Trojans secured early victories on courts five and four before clinching the overall win at court two. They then went on to take courts one and three for a complete sweep. The individual matchups included Kennedy Coakley and Ashley Pator from USC defeating Shantel Starling and Denisse Morgenstern from Florida Atlantic in three sets (18-21, 21-18, 15-10) on court one.
During their second contest against Long Beach State, Florida Atlantic again saw their opponents take early leads by winning courts five and four. Long Beach clinched victory at court two before also taking courts three and one. In this matchup, Malia Gementera and Taylor Hagenah from Long Beach defeated Denisse Morgenstern and Shantel Starling (22-20, 21-12) on court one.
Looking ahead, Florida Atlantic will finish play in Texas on Saturday with matches scheduled against No. 2 Stanford at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time and No.1 UCLA at 1:30 p.m., both taking place at ATX Beach.
Fans can follow updates about the team’s progress through @FAUBeachVB on X (formerly Twitter) or Instagram or by liking FAU Beach Volleyball on Facebook.
