Box Score MOBILE, Ala. - Hitting the road for the first time in conference play, the University of New Orleans swept South Alabama 3-0 (25-23, 25-23, 25-16) on Saturday night, giving Privateer head coach
Jozsef Forman his 50th win at the helm of the program.
The victory continued several streaks for UNO (12-5, 5-0 Sun Belt) as the team defeated USA (10-10, 1-6 SBC) for the 11th straight time and extended the squad's current win streak to eight matches, the fourth-longest in school history.
Lindsey Loyd's 11 kills took match-high honors with
Vesna Jelic and
Edina Dobi each tallying 10 kills of their own.
Hajnalka Molnar had 24 assists through the first two frames before handing over the setting duties to
Cassidy Asebroek, who distributed 12 assists in the final set.
Defensively, UNO received 13 digs from
Nicky Valenti and stuffed 11 Jaguar attacks to hold their foe to a .146 hitting percentage.
Kaley Hubbard had a hand on seven blocks, two of which were solo stops.
Juliana Almeida was the top hitter for USA with 10 kills. Jennica Hagberg had a match-high 30 assists and Kari Frazier paced the back row with 12 digs.
In the opening frame, the Jaguars jumped out to a 5-2 lead before the Privateers responded with a 7-2 run to take a 9-7 advantage. USA would climb back in the driver's seat with a four-point advantage at 18-14 with UNO answering once more as Loyd and Hubbard contributed to two blocks each during a 5-0 run.
The Privateers would not relinquish the lead despite several attack errors late in the set. A Loyd kill, her fifth of the stanza, brought about match point with a USA attack error handing the set to the visiting squad.
Loyd continued her strong hitting in the second frame with five kills and no errors. Most of the kills came early in the frame as UNO jumped out to an eight-point lead at 13-5.
The Jaguars would chase the Privateers before reeling them in with a tie at 22. Three USA errors in the final four points of the set allowed UNO to enter the break with a 2-0 advantage.
In the third set, the Privateers would not let their hosts catch up again. UNO hit .333 in the frame and after letting the Jaguars score the first point, proceeded to go on a 9-3 run that put the advantage in their favor going forward.
The closest USA would get in the stanza would be three points at 11-8 as the Privateers built a lead as large as 10 points on way to a 25-16 final set win.
UNO will bring their Alabama road trip to a close on Sunday at 4 p.m. against Troy. Live stats and video for the SBC contest between the Privateers and Trojans will be available on UNOPrivateers.com.
