BATON ROUGE, La. – The Spring Hill College (SHC) Sandy Badgers beach volleyball team suffered a pair of losses to two Top 25 teams on Saturday at the Tiger Beach Challenge hosted by Louisiana State University (LSU) at Mango's Beach Volleyball Club, falling 5-0 to the No. 17 Stetson University (SU) Hatters (12-6) and 4-1 to the No. 18 Tulane University (TU) Green Wave (10-5).
 
Following the match, SHC head coach Shawn Taylor was complimentary of his team's opponents. "We got off to a sluggish start today," he said. "But Stetson played a large role in that and made us pay for any mistakes or miscues. Our best match came at the No. 1 position where Gidney and Julie battled well, but came up a couple of plays short."
 
"Against Tulane, I felt like we did a much better job of playing our style of volleyball and presenting problems for Tulane," Taylor said. "We pushed their No. 5 pair and came out with a 3^rd set thriller against their No. 4. We made them work for every point and as a coach that's all I can ask for."
 
"The out of the four teams we face this weekend are either ranked or have been ranked in the top 20 for Division I," Taylor added. "I am proud of the effort we gave against these teams and expect the same tomorrow when we take on FAU and UNO."
 
#17 Stetson 5, Spring Hill College 0
 
1. Carly Perales/S. Helland-Hansen (SU) def. Payton Gidney/Julie Vujnovich (SHC) 21-19, 21-16
2. Sammee Thomas/Darby Dunn (SU) def. Brittany Bilotti/Sarah Senft (SHC) 21-14, 21-14
3. Samantha Harris/Rachel Noble (SU) def. Caroline Herrera/Allison Weimer (SHC) 21-13, 21-11
4. Lauren Durham/Julie Varga (SU) def. Catherine Milwee/Emily Greim (SHC) 21-10, 21-15
5. Quinci Birker/Rebecca Ingram (SU) def. Emmarose Neibert/Emily Sullivan (SHC) 21-14, 21-10
Ext. Alexa Richardson/Katinka Krahn (SU) def. Katie Beth Gammon/Patty Blood (SHC) 21-13, 21-14
 
#18 Tulane 4, Spring Hill College 1
 
1. Madeline Mertz/Kaylie McHugh (TU) def. Julie Vujnovich/Payton Gidney (SHC) 21-9, 21-9
2. Tarin Mergener/Lan Nguyen (TU) def. Sarah Senft/Brittany Bilotti (SHC) 21-18, 21-14
3. Addison Hermstad/Ashley Delgado (TU) def. Allison Weimer/Caroline Herrera (SHC) 21-16, 21-12
4. Taylor Hurst/Catherine Milwee (SHC) def. Gabriella Becerra/Lauren Olrich (TU) 22-24, 22-20, 18-16
5. Morgan Esters/Christina McAfee (TU) def. Emily Sullivan/Emmarose Neibert (SHC) 21-18, 23-21
 
The Badgers (7-5) will remain in Baton Rouge to continue play in the Tiger Beach Challenge beginning at 10 a.m. on Sunday versus the Florida Atlantic University (FAU) Owls (11-9).