LAKELAND, Fla. – The beach volleyball team opened the 2019 season with a pair of hard-fought matches Monday afternoon. They fell to North Alabama 3-2 in the opener and later fell to Florida Southern 4-1.

North Alabama 3, LMU 2
Against UNA the Lions picked up wins at the four and five spots.

Firstly, Abby Higgins and Brooke Taylor fell 21-7, 21-8 to Ana Gabriela Pacheco and Genesis Benitez at the fifth flight, followed soon afterward by Ava Carnley and Libby Jump's 21-8, 21-8 win over LMU's Caitlin Bethell and Marissa Coutinho at the four spot.

LMU's Kai Wesemann and Sarah Jones picked up the first point of the match for the Lady Railsplitters with their 21-11, 21-10 win over Sina Faulk and Catie Ladner at the third flight.

UNA picked up the win at the first flight, where Sophia Brandstetter and Paula Klemperer bested LMU's Danielle Ged and Danielle Stachura 21-15, 21-15.

LMU finished the match with a win at the second flight, where Lindsey Nartker and Rylee Storms defeated Ashtyn Kapovich and Joise Maldonado in three sets 21-16, 8-21, 15-8.

Florida Southern 4, LMU 1
In the second match against Florida Southern, four of the flights went to three sets.

Taylor and Bethell fell to Katie Bergeron and Morgan Cleary 21-4, 21-16 in the fifth spot, while Coutinho and Emily Walter went to three sets with Haley Goodrich and Celia Greco before falling 21-13, 20-22, 15-7.

Wesemann and Jones then went to three sets against Kennedy Mathews and Lee Calhoun, losing the first set 22-20 and winning the second set 21-16 before roaring back from 11-9 down to take the third set 15-12 and cut the FSC lead to 2-1.

At the second flight, Storms and Nartker also went to three sets with Kayla Trefren and Kylee Whiteleather, but the Mocs pulled out the 18-21, 21-19, 15-8 win.

At the first flight, Ged and Stachura dropped the first set to FSC's Makena Wilson and Alex Montoya 21-17 before rallying back and taking the second set 21-16. The third set saw the Mocs take a 14-11 lead before LMU came back and tie things up at 14-14. FSC then scored two straight to claim the third set 16-14.

LMU (0-2), who opened their fourth season with today's matches, will make the short trip from Lakeland to Saint Petersburg tomorrow to face Florida Southern again at 1 p.m., followed by Eckerd at 4 p.m.