NEW ORLEANS - The University of New Orleans extended their win streak to seven matches with a 3-0 (25-22, 25-17, 25-20) win on Sunday afternoon at the Human Performance Center.
UNO (11-5, 4-0 Sun Belt) continued their success at home, winning their 15th home match in their last 17 outings on the HPC floor while hitting at a .337 clip.
Maria Szivos had 11 kills to pace the Privateers with
Lindsey Loyd following suit with nine kills of her own.
Hajnalka Molnar distributed 29 assists while
Nicky Valenti averaged six digs a set on way to 18 digs.
Amy Huddleston was the top attacker for NT (6-12, 2-2 SBC) with 11 kills. Kayla Saey's 19 assists were joined in double-figures by Marella Lempets, who added 11.
The Privateers showed rust after a 20 minute delay to the start the match as NT opened the first set with an 8-2 run. The UNO deficit continued to grow reaching seven points at 11-4.
A 9-2 run by the Privateers made the Mean Green edge more manageable to overcome, which UNO did on a Loyd kill to take an 18-17 lead. A tie was all NT could to get close to the Privateers from that point forward as UNO took the first stanza 25-22 behind Valenti's 11 digs.
After seven ties in the second frame, NT emerged as the team infront with a three-point advantage at 10-7. The Privateers rallied right back with five straight points and 11 of 13 to take their second lead of the stanza and the last one they would need on way to a 25-17.
UNO started the third set where they left off before the break, scoring 7 of 9 points to open the frame.
The Mean Green never had a chance to recover as the Privateers lead grew to as many as eight points before the squad cruised to a 25-20 set win on the back of a .438 hitting percentage in the frame.
UNO will head to Alabama on Saturday for a 5 p.m. match against I-10 rival South Alabama before traveling to Troy for a Sunday encounter with the Trojans.
