By Vincent Rupena – Spear Reporter
San Jose State beach volleyball at the Southland Conference Championships after winning a matchup against Southern Louisiana | Photo by SJSU Athletics
San Jose State concludes a historic season with a fourth place finish at the Southland Conference Championships.
The Spartans entered the championship with a 12-10 overall record and a 3-4 Southland record. The team carried a lot of momentum into the competition winning their last three duals.
The first opponent for SJSU was five-seeded New Orleans.
The Spartans lost to New Orleans 3-2 earlier this season at the Southland Midseason Tournament. History did not repeat itself this time as SJSU dominated the matchup winning 3-1.
The Spartans opened the tournament with an explosive start but could not keep that going in their second dual on Friday.
SJSU lost against one-seeded Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 3-0. Despite the score potentially implying that SJSU played poorly, the margin of defeat was smaller than it appeared.
SJSU senior Cheyenne Rice and sophomore Teila Allen battled to force a third set after dropping the first. The pair could not fight back losing 15-11 in the third set. Another pairing that lost in a close third set was freshman Alexandra Dale and Graduate Student Tessa Rodgers.
This would be a crucial match that ultimately determined the Spartans’ defeat in the dual.
“Didn’t quite pull it off today but we are hungry, we can hang with them and we are going to be back tomorrow,” SJSU head coach Gary Hodge said.
The Spartans had a chance for redemption heading into Saturday. If SJSU won its next two duals then they would be moving to Sunday with an opportunity to play in the championship game.
After crushing Southeastern Louisiana 3-0, SJSU’s season came down to a dual against number
third-seeded Houston Christian. SJSU fought hard but could pull out a victory.
Once again, Rice and Allen forced a third set where they lost. SJSU sophomore Anna Salmon and junior Shirley Morrison narrowly lost after their second set was forced into extras. Fifth year Sienna Brewster and sophomore Meredith Scott were also competing in a third set when the match concluded.
It is heartbreaking that the Spartans had so many opportunities that would have secured victory but they did not fall their way The Spartans had many opportunities to but ultimately lost in heartbreaking fashion. There are still a lot of positives that can be taken away from SJSU’s season.
The 2024 team finishes the season with the most wins in school history at 14. It is also just the third time in program history that the Spartans have posted a winning record.
The last two times this was accomplished was in 2023 and 2020. The beach volleyball program at SJSU is trending in the right direction and has the potential to get even greater in the future.