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The Daily Wildcat

The Daily Wildcat

 

Beach volleyball ends regular season at 19-10, goes undefeated at Bear Down Bash

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Amy Bailey
Arizona’s Makenna Martin (2) and Caroline Cordes (25) high five and get ready for the next play after scoring a point against their San Jose State opponents on Sunday Feb. 25 at Bear Down Beach in Tucson, Ariz.

The Sand Cats returned to Bear Down Beach on Friday, April 20 to host and dominate the Bear Down Bash in Tucson, Ariz. against New Mexico and Utah with 5-0 and 3-2 wins respecitvely. Thanks to the clutch performance by sophomore Olivia Hallaran and Kacey Nady, the ‘Cats were able to sweep their final home tournament of the season (2-0).

The ‘Cats celebrated Senior Day today and five seniors were able to say their goodbyes to Bear Down Beach, including Olivia Macdonald, Kacey Nady, Hailey Devlin, Stephany Purdue, and Chelsey Harris.

After their undefeated performance today at home, Arizona beach volleyball improves to 19-10 on the season.

New Mexico

The ‘Cats started out the day with a clean sweep against the Lobos (5-0). Three out of the five pairs swept their respective opponents in two-sets, with the other two pairs taking three sets to get the job done.

On their big day, the senior tandem, Purdue and Devlin, defeated New Mexico’s Chloe Crappell and Yasmin Tan in a three-set match. They dropped the first set 12-21 but came back to win the second and third sets, 21-11 and 15-7, respectively.Arizona’s No. 1 pair,  Macdonald and Anselmo, beat New Mexico’s Maddie Irwin and Erin Martin 21-15 in the first set and 21-16 in the second set.

Arizona’s Jonny Baham and Brooke Burling defeated New Mexico’s Mercedes Pacheco and Carly Beddingfield 21-16 in the first set and 21-10 in the second set to get another two-set sweep under their belt.

Utah

Arizona started out the second half of its Friday doubleheader with two straight sweeps by the No. 4 and No. 5 pairs.

Arizona’s No. 4 pair, Burling and Baham, swept Utah’s Brianna Doehrmann and Berkeley Oblad 21-12 in the first set and 21-14 in the second set. Caroline Cordes and Makenna Martin, the No. 5 pair, snagged another point for Arizona with their two-set sweep over Utah’s Lauren Sproule and Lauga Gauta.

The No. 3 pair, Purdue and Devlin, dropped their match against Utah’s Melissa Powell and Kenzie Koerber in a down-to-the-wire three-set match. They won the first set 21-13 but lost the second set 19-21. In overtime, the senior Wildcat duo could not hold on long enough and dropped the third set 12-15 on their big day.

Hallaran and senior Nady were the reason behind Arizona’s clean sweep today at Bear Down Beach. After winning the first set 21-13, Hallaran and Nady dropped their second set 19-21. In the overtime set that decided the game, the Wildcat duo defeated Utah’s Tawnee Luafalemana and Bailey Choy 15-12 in the final set to give the ‘Cats the third point they needed to get their nineteenth win of the season.

The ‘Cats ended their season with a 19-10 record with an impressive 11-2 record at Bear Down Beach.

The ‘Cats are back in action for the fruition of their season: the Pac-12 Championships in Stanford, Calif. The tournament will start on Thursday, April 26 and it lasts until Saturday, April 28.


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