LAKELAND, Fla. – It's finally here. The LMU beach volleyball team opens their fourth season of competition this week with three matches in three days in Florida. They take on Florida Southern Monday, followed by Eckerd on Tuesday and Webber International on Wednesday.

The team returns a strong nucleus from last season's squad that finished 9-14 while playing a grueling schedule with several long road trips.

Lindsey Nartker leads the way as the junior went 16-7 last year. Danielle Ged returns after going 10-13 last season, while Erica Whiteaker and Rylee Storms each posted 9-14 records. Also returning are Kai Wesemann, Tone Gill, Sarah Jones, Danielle Stachura and Alicia Kessler.

They are joined by Marissa Coutinho, a graduate transfer from Transylvania; Brooke Taylor, a senior who has played soccer and basketball during her tenure at LMU; and newcomers Caitlin Bethell, Abby Higgins, and Emily Walter.

This year's schedule features six teams that played against the Lady Railsplitters last season, including local rival Carson-Newman. A new local foe makes their first appearance this year as Tusculum begins play in beach volleyball in 2019.

Florida Southern enters Monday's match with LMU coming off a pair of wins over Stevenson Saturday afternoon. The two teams met for the first time last season and split both meetings. Live stats of the match will be available here.

Eckerd will come into Tuesday with a 1-13 record, but will face Florida Southern at 2:30 p.m. before playing LMU at 4 p.m. The Tritons lead the all-time series 4-2.

Webber is currently 9-9 on the season after going 2-2 over the weekend in the Huntingdon College Beach Tournament. They lead the series vs. LMU 3-1.

Following this week's matches, LMU will travel to Tusculum for the first-ever meeting with the Pioneers on April 3.