The Nebraska beach volleyball team begins its 2018 season with five matches in Arizona this weekend.
The Huskers open their trip at Benedictine University at Mesa on Friday at 6 p.m. (CT) at Gene Autry Park. Nebraska will play No. 6 LSU on Saturday at 11:30 a.m. at Grand Canyon University's Beach Volleyball Stadium in Phoenix, and the Big Red will cap the night against No. 11 Cal Poly in Tempe at 5 p.m. on Arizona State's campus.
The Huskers finish the trip on Sunday with matches against No. 1 USC (10 a.m.) and No. 19 Arizona State (Noon) in Tempe.
Following the trip to Arizona, Nebraska will host a pair of beach matches at the Hawks Championship Center. On Friday, March 2, NU will host Missouri State at 2 p.m. The following week on Thursday, March 8, Nebraska will go up against Missouri Baptist at 2 p.m. Both matches will be closed to the public because of space limitations.
Nebraska will make a trip to Hawaii on March 17-18 to face Hawaii, Grand Canyon and USC two times each. On March 20 the Huskers will play Hawaii for a third time before returning to the mainland to play Irvine Valley College, Long Beach State and Concordia University (Irvine) on Friday, March 23 in Irvine, California.
The Huskers have 13 student-athletes on their beach volleyball roster this spring, including seniors Kelly Hunter, Allie Havers and Annika Albrecht. Sydney Townsend and Briana Holman will not play beach volleyball this season, but NU has two new student-athletes in Jasmine Schmidt and Kashauna Williams who will participate.