Leesburg, Fla. – The Lake-Sumter State College beach volleyball team is well into their third season, but just their first full season since beginning in the spring of 2020.
Covid-19 has put a damper on the early years of the beach volleyball program. Going into 2019-20, beach volleyball was the fastest growing sport in the NCAA and NJCAA. The pandemic shortened the inaugural 2020 season and caused a modified minimal schedule for the 2021 season. The program is now in its first full season and is battling to get to where they need to go.
After a pair of tough losses (5-0, 5-0) to Florida Southern College, the Lakehawks came back to defeat Warner University (4-1). The pairs of Erin Ellis/Alyssa Guarino, Faith Horgeshimer/Kaylin McCann, Carolina Marrero/Isabella Ospina and Cayla Colbert/Macey McGinnis all won their individual matches to give their team the victory. Their second match of the day was a loss to St. Leo (5-0).
Lake-Sumter suffered a pair of losses on the road against Palm Beach State College (5-0) and State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota. The second match was tightly contested, but the Lakehawks came up on the short end, 3-2.
Beach volleyball will host St. John's River State College and State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota Saturday with the first match set for 9 am at Hickory Point Beach.