TAVARES, Fla. - The Spring Hill College Sandy Badgers kept rolling Saturday at the AVCA Small College Beach Championships, picking up three more wins to advance to the semifinals of the Gold Medal playoffs.
Spring Hill (19-10) will take on the University of Tampa (18-10) in one of the semifinals at 11 a.m. ET Sunday. A win there sends the Sandy Badgers into the national title match against the winner of the other semifinal between defending champions Texas A&M-Kingsville (18-12) and Colorado Mesa (7-9) at 1:30 p.m. The two semifinal losers will meet for third place, also at 1:30.
"I'm very happy with our play up to this point," said Spring Hill head coach
Shawn Taylor. "I think everyone is contributing and doing the things we need to do at this point in the season. We square off against a solid program in Tampa, who we beat in our only previous encounter, at this event (in 2018), to claim third place. They have improved over the course of a year, as have we, so it should make for great competition. We're a step closer to our ultimate goal and ready to get back on the sand (Sunday) at 11 a.m."
Along with advancing to the semifinals, Spring Hill - in its fifth year with a beach volleyball program - also set a new record for most victories in a season (19). The previous record was 17, when the Sandy Badgers went 17-16 in 2017.
The Sandy Badgers started their day Saturday with a 3-0 victory over Florida Southern to earn the No. 1 seed from Preliminary Pool "B". They followed up with victories over Principia (3-0) and Stevenson (4-1) to finish atop Challenge Pool "B" and move into the semifinal round.
"We opened the day with a win against Florida Southern and while they're a newer program, their conference has jumped into beach volleyball with both feet," said Taylor. "I thought we got off to a great start and were dialed in, ready to play. We were able to get credit for the wins at Nos. 1, 3, and 5, but all of the pairs were in a good rhythm and in position to score wins. It was our first opportunity to play Florida Southern and we feel fortunate to have come away with the victory."
The Principia match went similarly to the Florida Southern match in that Spring Hill got three wins and the match was halted, this time with the Nos. 1 and 2 matches still on court. Earning wins for the Sandy Badgers were Bilotti and Senft at No. 3 (21-10, 21-13),
Taylor Hurst and
Cassidi Sterrett at No. 4 (21-9, 21-9) and Neibert and Greim at No. 5 (21-7, 21-10).
"Principia is a familiar opponent, as we've hosted them the last few years," said Taylor. "Again, I thought our pairs came out playing to attack and earning points. We were able to nab a win again, as we walked away with straight-set victories at the Nos. 3, 4, and 5 pairs. Our second pair of
Allison Weimer and
Caroline Herrera were knocking on the door to get a victory, but Senft and Bilotti were able to clinch our third point for the team before Al and Carol could put a match win on the board."Â Â
Spring Hill finished out the Challenge Pool with a convincing win over Stevenson to advance into Sunday's semifinal round. Gidney and Fairly (21-18, 21-19 at No. 1), Bilotti and Senft (21-10, 21-16 at No. 3), Hurst and Sterrett (21-16, 21-19) and Neibert and Greim (21-15, 21-14 at No. 5) all came away with straight-set victories for the Sandy Badgers.
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"Our third match of the day, we found ourselves across the net from another unfamiliar opponent," said Taylor. "Stevenson is a D-III program and has similar roots to us in that they have established themselves and are now in their fourth year as a program. I thought Stevenson did a great job of serving us aggressive and keeping us off balanced and their ball control and placement was pushing us to be a little better and a little more crisp in our play. However, we rose to the occasion and were able to pull out the victory."Â Â
AVCA Small College Beach Championships
at Tavares, Fla.
Preliminary Pool "B"
Spring Hill 3, Florida Southern 0
Challenge Pool "B"
Spring Hill 3, Principia 0
Spring Hill 4, Stevenson 1
