NEW ORLEANS - The University of New Orleans volleyball team capped
their regular season with a dominating 3-0 (25-7, 25-11, 25-11) victory
over Louisiana-Monroe at the Human Performance Center on Saturday
afternoon.
With the victory, the Privateers won their school-record 13th conference match and need a Denver loss on Sunday at home against Arkansas State to clinch the school's first Sun Belt division title.
UNO (20-9, 13-5 SBC) was led by
Dobrilla Kovacevic with 12 kills in her final appearance on the Lakefront while another senior,
Jaci Bayley paced the offense with 19 assists.
Lindsey Loyd added another seven kills to the attack totals while
Nicky Valenti had 10 digs.
ULM (1-30, 0-17 SBC) was led in defeat by Mari O'Neal who had four kills. Helen Theisen had eight assists and Christy Tribble totaled five digs.
UNO stormed out of the gates in the opening set with a 13-1 run. With the Warhawks hitting -.346, the Privateers continued to control the frame. The team hit .304 in the stanza while defensively, the team tallied five blocks with
Heather Ford having a hand in four in a 25-7 opening victory.
The second set was much of the same as UNO scored 6 of 7 to start the frame. With an 18-9 lead, ULM had five consecutive errors putting the Privateers in position to win the frame, which they did several points later at 25-11. Loyd and Kovacevic each had three kills in the frame.
After an early tie at one, the Privateers scored five straight points to take an advantage which would not get any closer than six points the rest of the way as UNO closed out the Warhawks 25-11 after hitting .409 for the frame.
The Privateers will await the completion of the conference regular season on Sunday to determine their seeding in next week's SBC tournament. Regardless of result, UNO will play Thursday at Pharmed Arena on the campus of Florida International and can be no worse than a sixth seed.
