NEW ORLEANS - The University of New Orleans volleyball team clinched a
spot in the Sun Belt Conference tournament with a 3-0 win (25-14,
25-18, 25-21) over West Division leading Denver on Thursday night at
the Human Performance Center.
UNO (16-9, 9-5 SBC) snapped a three-match losing streak to the Pioneers and picked up their first sweep of their divisional rival since Sept. 22, 2004.
Leading the way for the Privateers, who hit .463 on the match, was
Dobrilla Kovacevic with 16 kills.
Lindsey Loyd followed with 15 and
Maria Szivos tacked on another eight. Szivos also put down four aces as UNO tallied 10 on the night.
Cassidy Asebroek had a match-high 38 assists while
Nicky Valenti paced the defensive efforts with 12 digs.
DU (22-5, 10-4 SBC) was led by Emily Davidsmeyer with nine kills. Clare Maxwell had 13 assists while Kacie Wikierak had five digs for the visiting squad.
The Privateers got on the board early scoring 4 of 5 points to open the match. The UNO lead would grow to seven at 14-7 as Kovacevic put down six kills in her first seven attack attempts.
DU reached within six scores of the Privateers at 16-10 before UNO extended their lead to 11 at 24-13 before winning the opening frame two points later at 25-14. The Privateers had 20 kills in the set with Kovacevic leading the way with eight followed by Loyd with six and Szivos with four as the team hit .621 for the frame.
Carrying the momentum over from the previous stanza, the Privateers reeled off the opening five points to start the second game. UNO would continue to build on the lead, reaching a high of nine points at 15-6 causing DU head coach Beth Kuwata to call a timeout.
The Pioneers cut the lead to six at 17-11 before a sideout put the ball in the hands of Szivos who strung together consecutive aces to push the lead back to nine. DU cut the lead down to six at 22-16 and again at 24-18 before closing out the frame on the next point. Loyd was the leader in the second set, pounding down six kills in just eight attempts.
In the third set, UNO fell behind 3-0 and the lead was 7-3 in favor of the visitors from Colorado before Privateer head coach
Jozsef Forman called a timeout. UNO would work their way back into the match before tying the scoring at 13 on a
Heather Ford kill.
UNO then pulled ahead completing a 6-1 run when they extended their lead to 17-14 on an Asebroek ace. The Pioneers would not go away pulling with one point at 17-16. Looking to close the match, the Privateers once more picked up their game scoring 8 of 13 points to take the third set 25-21.
UNO will next play North Texas at 4 p.m at the HPC. The match will be streamed online exclusively at UNOPrivateers.com.
