LAFAYETTE, La. - With five straight road matches for the University of
New Orleans volleyball team, it was critical to get off to a strong
start. The Privateers did just that in claiming a 3-0 (25-18, 26-24,
29-27 ) win over Louisiana-Lafayette on Tuesday night at Earl K. Long
Gym.
Winning for the second straight match in conference play,
UNO (13-7, 6-3 SBC) was led by Dobrilla Kovacevic and Maria Szivos, who
tallied 14 and 11 kills respectively. Lindsey Loyd added nine while
Kaley Hubbard had eight for the Privateer offense which hit .373 on the
attack during the match.
Cassidy Asebroek and Jaci Bayley split
setting duties for head coach Jozsef Forman. Asebroek, a sophomore from
Vista, Calif. had 22 assists while Bayley, a senior from Irvine, Calif.
had 17.
Defensively, the Privateers held the Ragin' Cajuns to a
.186 hitting clip. Nicky Valenti had 12 digs for UNO while Hubbard,
Kovacevic and Heather Ford each had a hand in two blocks.
ULL
(6-14, 3-7 SBC) lost for the fourth time in their last five outings. In
defeat, they were led by Lesley Mirarchi who had 13 kills.
Carly Payan and Amie Goodwin added nine and eight kills, respectively.
Kendra
Hall had 32 assists for the home squad, which fell to UNO for the
seventh straight time. Lindsay Brown had 11 digs on the defensive side
of the net for the Ragin' Cajuns.
UNO got off to a slow start to
open the match. Trailing by as many as four at 7-3 to begin the first
set, it looked like this match would not turn out the way the
Privateers intended for. UNO would start warming up, scoring 9 of 13
points, capped by three consecutive kills to turn the tables and take a
16-11 lead.
Service errors late in the frame by the Privateers
would pull the Ragin' Cajuns within four before ULL hit one into the
net followed by consecutive kills by Kovacevic and Hubbard to
close out the opening stanza 25-18.
Not interested in coming
back from behind in the second frame, the Privateers opened up a 3-3
game by going on a 8-1 run on the serves of Valenti and Szivos. Hubbard
had two kills during the run which saw the Ragin' Cajuns have three
consecutive attack errors after the initial sideout to spur the UNO
rally.
The Privateer advantage in the stanza would grow to as
much as eight at 13-5 before ULL made a run of their own scoring 15 of
the next 22 points to knot the game at 20 apiece. UNO would never
concede the lead and after one last tie at 24, took the next two points
on a Kovacevic kill and a Ford ace.
With a 2-0 lead in hand, the
Privateers were out to close the match in the third frame. The Ragin'
Cajuns never let UNO pull away more than three points at 11-8. ULL
would take a lead lead and have a set point at 24-23 that was brushed
off by a Szivos kill.
Going into extra points for the second
straight frame, the Privateers and Cajuns took turns breaking set
points before back-to-back kills by Szivos and Kovacevic closed out the
final set in favor of the visiting squad, 29-27.
UNO will now
venture back on the road for a Saturday contest against Western
Kentucky at 5 p.m and a Sunday tilt against Middle Tennessee at 2 p.m.
