Despite dropping out of the Top 20 in early March, Green Wave beach volleyball put together an impressive start to the spring season, spiking its way to an overall record of 11-7 with nine of those wins coming in the last 11 games.

In the tough Coastal Collegiate Sports Association conference, however, with seven teams ranked in the NCAA top 20, Tulane has only managed to put together a sub par 4-5 record in CCSA conference play.

The strongest team in the conference, NCAA No. 3 Florida State University (11-4) has gone undefeated in six games of conference play after picking up an initial loss to No. 4 Louisiana State University (8-4) in a tight 2-3 loss at the FSU Invitational to start the season.

The Tigers have also had a great start to conference play with a 6-1 conference record. While LSU hopes to eventually dominate the CCSA, the Tigers will have to sit at an even record of 1-1 against FSU, as the top two teams will not face each other until the conference tournament in mid April.

NCAA No. 8  Florida International University Panthers (6-5) and No. 11 University of South Carolina Gamecocks (10-6) are also having stellar seasons. The Panthers started the year in a dominant fashion with five consecutive sweeps, before their first loss to a non-conference team, NCAA No. 2 University of Southern California, in a tight 2-3 defeat. Despite minimal conference play, the Panthers, are undefeated in their two games thus far, with big wins against Florida Atlantic University and Georgia State University.

While the Gamecocks have put together a more impressive overall record, they have not shown as much brilliance in conference play, sitting just one game above .500 at 5-4. With a big conference win against LSU in early March at the FAU Burrow Beach Bash, and an even more impressive non-conference win against USC at the Georgia State Day of Duals tournament on Mar. 12, the Gamecocks are certainly still a threat in both the CCSA tournament and the following NCAA tournament.

The Green Wave will look to improve its conference record with two upcoming CCSA games  against the University of Southern Mississippi and LSU at the Tiger Beach Challenge on Mar. 22 in Baton Rouge.