Press Release courtesy of Tulane Athletics
The Green Wave begin the 2018 regular season this weekend at the Fight in the Fort in Fort Worth, Texas, facing host #14 TCU and Arizona State at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Saturday, respectively, before playing #8 Cal Poly at 10 a.m. Sunday.
“The team has come together wonderfully and has been playing very good volleyball for quite some time now,” Head Coach Wayne Holly said. “We’re ready for our season to begin and excited to be playing three very good programs this weekend. Quickly settling into our routines and finding our rhythm will be key to our success. The start of the season brings many distractions, we’ll need to treat these matches like we have our many simulations, and just go out and trust our preparation and training.”
Tulane completed a successful and winning preseason in the fall, scrimmaging at the Gulf Shores Collegiate Clash before winning duals against HBU and UAB in the Green Wave Fall Invitational. This weekend, the Green Wave will meet two Top 25-ranked opponents in TCU and Cal Poly and battle Arizona State, kicking off their season against tough competition.
“We’re playing good teams and that’s by design,” Holly said. “We deliberately schedule good competition throughout the season. I expect we’ll play very well this weekend and look forward to testing ourselves against three very well-coached teams.”
The Green Wave enter the regular season on the heels of a historic 2017 campaign. Last spring, Tulane made program history on many different fronts, finishing 24-13, the most single-season wins in program history, and earning its first-ever wins at the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association (CCSA) Conference Championships. Then-freshmen Kaylie McHugh and Tarin Mergener combined for 54 overall wins, breaking the freshman class record and spurring Holly’s program to its fourth consecutive winning season.
Expectations remain high this season. McHugh and senior Madeline Mertz were named to the CCSA Preseason All-Conference Team, and senior Lan Nguyen earned a spot on the CCSA Preseason Watch List. McHugh received the honor for the first time in her career following a historic freshman season in which she was named to both the CCSA All-Conference Team and All-Freshman Team while Mertz, now a two-time preseason all-conference selection, posted a 23-14 record as a junior and was named to the CCSA All-Tournament Team last year.
Holly said the team is ready to get this season started, and he does not expect long-term jitters from the squad after countless hours of preseason of training.
“We’ve played opponents in the fall, but there really is no substitution for the matches that in some sense really count,” Holly said. “There will be some anxiety as there is in any athlete on any team in any program to get the first point out of the way, but we’re confident because we know that we’ve done the right things in practice. We’ve handled the simulations well. There will be some anxiety at the beginning of the day when we get to play TCU, but that will quickly dissipate and then it’ll just be a battle of two very good programs, and we’ll see who comes out on top.”
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Full Schedule
Saturday
Cal Poly vs. Arizona State, 9 a.m.
Tulane vs. TCU, 11 a.m.
Tulane vs. Arizona State, 1 p.m.
Cal Poly vs. TCU, 3 p.m.
Sunday
Tulane vs. Cal Poly, 10 a.m.
TCU vs. Arizona State, 12 p.m.
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