Live Stats - Friday (UAH) -
Saturday (UWA)
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Gulf South Conference play resumes this weekend for the University of New Orleans volleyball program as it heads to Alabama-Huntsville on Friday for a 7 p.m. contest and West Alabama on Saturday for a 1 p.m. match-up.
UNO (2-17, 0-10 Gulf South) will be seeking a split of the season series against both foes, having dropped 3-0 decisions to each school nearly a month ago at Lakefront Arena.
Despite their difficulties in securing a win, the Privateers enter this weekend playing their best volleyball of the season.
Against Xavier on Tuesday, UNO were up a set and just a point away from gaining a crucial 2-1 lead. Just prior to the match against XULA, the freshman-laden Privateers put together its best three sets of the season against an upper echelon GSC foe in a loss to Christian Brothers.
Elena Villar has the hot hand offensively over the last two matches for head coach Kim Young-Buford's squad, putting down 16 kills with six attack errors. Setter
Ryan Hamilton also displayed her knack on the attack, most recently delivering five kills without error in the contest on Tuesday.
An all-around improvement on the offensive end, as a collective, the Privateers hit .119 against XULA, their highest hitting percentage since going .212 against Centenary on Sept. 17.
UNO's results on the offensive end have translated to success defensively as CBU and XULA posted the lowest offensive output against the Privateers for an opponent since the Sept. 14 win at SUNO.
Looking to continue to build on that, UNO opens with a UAH (8-19, 3-7 GSC) program that ended a seven-match losing streak in their most recent contest, defeating West Georgia 3-1 on the road last Saturday.
The Chargers are seeking to hold off UWG to clinch the final spot in the GSC tournament and with a pair of victories over the Wolves look to be sitting in prime position.
Four players average at least two kills a frame for UAH, led by Jessica Ruple with 2.93 kills a set. Kelsey Williams (2.33), Angela Thurmond (2.18) and Carrie Brown (2.09) join Ruple in forming the group of heavy hitters.
UWA (19-9, 7-4 GSC) has already clinched a spot in the GSC tournament is seeking to improve its seeding, residing a half-game behind third place Christian Brothers and a game behind second place North Alabama.
The Tigers are led by Angela Sander's 3.27 kills per frame, though it was Olivia Drew who caused problems for the Privateers in the previous meeting. Drew – who averages 1.96 kills per set – hammered down 13 kills against UNO without an error in 23 attack attempts.
Following this weekend's pair of matches, the Privateers will host SUNO on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Human Performance Center.
