On Sunday, April 3, the UNC Wilmington Beach Volleyball Invitational was held at Dig & Dive grill, and the Seahawks definitely stood out from the competition. The invitational was the lone home event of the season and included Stevenson, Coastal Carolina and Winthrop in the competition.

The team dominated two flights, with Bella Borgiotti and Katie McCullough winning the Gold Bracket and Courtney Mullinax and Lindsay Jones earning first place in the Exhibition Bracket. The two victories brought the team to a 7-10 record for the season.

“This past weekend, we played as a team for ourselves and for each other,” said UNCW freshman Sydney Alvis. “Each set of pairs had an outstanding weekend, and that just goes to show how much we can learn and put to use in such little time and lesser knowledge of the game.”

To triumph in the Gold finals, Borgiotti and McCullough rose above another UNCW pair consisting of Maddy Kline and Ashleigh Kutcher. In the Exhibition finals, Mullinax and Jones were victorious over the Seahawk duo of Anna Moss and Alyssa Desjardins.

The duo consisting of Sydney Alvis and Sarah Kelly was close to bringing home a win after reaching the finals of the Silver Bracket, but unfortunately fell in three sets to Coastal Carolina’s Sara Boothe and Mika Mierzwa.

“We are in the final stretch of our season and have seen tremendous improvement with each passing tournament,” said Mullinax. “Winning our first home invitational was icing on the cake. We have worked hard this season to compete with more experienced sand programs.”

The weekend of April 9, the team headed to Siesta, Fla. for the Fiesta on Siesta Key tournament. They faced some of their toughest competition yet when they went head to head with Florida State, Florida Atlantic, TCU and Louisiana Monroe.

The lady Seahawks’ recent success is even more impressive considering how new the program is to UNCW. This is the first year the university has had a beach volleyball team. While most of the other teams they faced in the home invitational were still young and developing, the competition in Florida was comprised of a more experienced lineup.

“To see so many people within the community supporting us was truly special to see [and] I think it just shows how this sport is going to thrive in Wilmington for years to come,” said UNCW junior Nicole Lott. “Most of us have never played beach volleyball before and it has been a tremendous learning experience. To see how close we are coming to beating well established schools gets me excited to see what the future holds for UNCW beach volleyball.”