DENTON, Texas - The University of New Orleans broke a two-match skid
with a 3-0 (25-20, 25-18, 25-16) win over North Texas on Sunday
afternoon.
For
UNO (9-5, 2-2 SBC), it brought to the end two consecutive Sun Belt
weekends on the road as the Privateers will play the next two weekends
at home against their conference rivals.
Against NT, Lindsey
Loyd had a team-high 12 kills while Dobrilla Kovacevic followed with
11. Jaci Bayley had 27 assists while Nicky Valenti led UNO with nine
digs and Heather Ford brought the block with a hand in four blocks.
Kaley
Hubbard continued her strong weekend with nine kills in just 11
attempts on the afternoon, setting a career high hitting percentage of
.818. Hubbard hit down eight kills in 15 attempts on Friday night against Denver.
The
Mean Green lost for the second straight day, falling to 3-13 overall
and 1-3 in conference. NT was led by Roxana Casvean and Brittani Youman
with nine and eight kills, respectively.
Kayla Saey matched Bayley for match-high honors with 27 assists for the Mean Green while Sarah Willey had seven digs for NT.
UNO
only trailed twice in the opening frame, falling behind 1-0 and 8-7.
After a tie at 13, the Privateers slowly began to open up a lead,
eventually pulling away by as many as five at 23-18. UNO would take the
set 25-20 when Jessica Green hit a serve into the net for the Mean
Green.
In the second frame, UNO allowed NT to take a brief lead
early in the set. After a tie at nine, the Privateers opened the
floodgates scoring 9 of 12 points with five different UNO players
getting into the act with kills to take a comanding 18-12 lead.
The
Privateer advantage eventually went to eight points at 23-15 after
back-to-back kills by Loyd before Hubbard closed out the Mean
Green with a final kill at 25-18 to take a 2-0 advantage into the break.
NT
came out of the break and quickly took a 5-3 lead. UNO, looking to
sweep the host Mean Green, came back and after trailing 6-5, scored
five straight points to take a 10-6 lead on Valenti's serve, from which
they would never look back.
UNO would push the lead out to as
much as 10 at 20-10 as the Privateers scored four consecutive points
during another run by the visitors from the Crescent City. The match
would come to a close on a Maria Szivos score as UNO took the final set 25-16.
The
Privateers, who has only played once at home this season, will face
South Alabama at 7 p.m on Thursday night followed by a Sunday contest
against Troy at 12 p.m. Both matches will be streamed live on
UNOPrivateers.com.
