SARASOTA, Fla. — The Ave Maria Beach Volleyball split Friday in Sarasota, beating the Webber Warriors 3-2 and falling to the New College of Florida Mighty Banyans 4-1.

The afternoon started with a neutral site game against Webber. The Warriors scored the first point of the match, taking the second flight 21-15, 21-11.

The Gyrenes responded with three straight points of their own to clinch the match. Maria Teixiera and Beatriz Rissi were the first to finish, winning the fourth flight 21-16, 21-16.

Just five minutes later, Maylis DeTar and Abbey Grose finished up the fifth flight, winning 21-12, 21-19.

 The match was clinched with a win in the top flight as Ryan Getz and Ines Lopes took their match 21-16, 21-10. They gave up the fewest amount of points among all Gyrenes pairs on the day.

Webber scrounged their second point of the match with a three-set win in the third flight, but the Gyrenes had already clinched the match to improve to 9-0 on the year.

The late afternoon match was a bit of a shock for the Gyrenes as they fell for the first time in 2026. It came at the hands of the New College of Florida Mighty Banyans, who were ranked one spot ahead of the Gyrenes in the most recent NAIA poll.

New College won the first three flights of the match, clinching the win.

Ave Maria scored their lone point in the fourth flight with Rissi and Teixeira combining for another win. This win took three sets for the pair, but they got it done in time, winning 13-21, 22-20, 15-8. The two improved to 9-1 on the season in the fourth flight.

New College took the top flight which was the last to finish to end the match at 4-1.

With the split, Ave Maria moves to 9-1 overall and 7-1 in conference play.