ATLANTA - On the final day of the Sand in the City tournament, three Georgia State sand volleyball pairs advanced to the semifinals of their respective brackets before all three GSU pairs fell to Pepperdine pairs.
The bracket tournaments were separated into two brackets - the gold bracket for Nos. 1, 2 and 3 pairs and the silver bracket for Nos. 4, 5 and 6. In the silver bracket, GSU pair No. 4, Milani Pickering and Natalie Wilson, advanced to the semifinals to meet the No. 4 Pepperdine pair. Pickering and Wilson fell 21-11, 21-13 to the eventual silver bracket champions, Katie Messing and Emily Cook.
In the other silver bracket semifinal, GSU pair No. 5 of Delaney Rohan and Alexis Townsend, lost to Pepperdine pair No. 5 of Taylor Racich and Sophie Asprey in three sets, 21-19, 14-21, 15-13. The GSU duo lost to the same pair in Saturday's dual in three sets, also 15-13 in the third set.
In the gold bracket, Georgia State No. 1 pair of Katie Madewell and Moriah Bellissimo advanced to the semi-finals after defeated the No. 3 Pepperdine pair of Delaney Knudsen and Caitlin Racich 21-13, 21-16. The Panther duo then faced Pepperdine's No. 1 pair of Lara Dykstra and Becca Strehlow. Madewell and Bellissimo lost 21-15, 21-18.
The gold bracket final put the top Pepperdine pairs against each other, with the No. 2 Pepperdine pair of Kelley Larsen and Kellie Woolever defeating Dykstra and Strehlow 23-21, 21-12.
"Today featured bracket play with the gold and silver brackets and bracket play allows you to see how you compete outside of your flight against other programs," head coach Beth Van Fleet said. "Across the board, we put up some good fights against College of Charleston, ULM and Pepperdine. We had some really close battles today and the team continues to support eachother when they are not playing, which is a fundamental part of our culture. It was really great today to see everyone competing across the board and great performances from all four schools."
The Panthers will head to Charleston, S.C., next weekend to compete in the College of Charleston tournament.
