NEW ORLEANS, La. – After travelling to Texas, the New Orleans Privateers Volleyball team returns home to host a pair of Southland Conference foes from Texas this week.
The Privateers will face Incarnate Word on Thursday night at 7 p.m., and then Abilene Christian comes to town for a match Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. UIW (9-9, 4-5 SLC) is coming off a 3-0 win over ACU (5-12, 1-8 SLC).
UNO (3-21, 0-11 SLC) continues to look for its first conference victory, and the Privateers are hoping to build off of the energy that has been present for their home matches at the Human Performance Center.
For the Privateers,
Alyssa Podwell hit the century mark in kills for the season with 102. She joins
Kelsea Hundtoft and
Marti Richmiller who have 130 and 168 respectively. Richmiller has also been solid defensively as she has 154 digs.
Taylor Berry also needs just 10 more kills to join her teammates in the triple digit club for the season.
Lauren Levy continues her consistency on the defensive front as she is only 13 digs away from hitting 300 for the season. Also notable for the Privateers is
Celeste Ramirez, who has 423 assists coupled with her 161 digs.
Sophomore Angelique Vidaurri leads a solid offense for the UIW Cardinals with 202 kills this season. The team is fourth overall in the Southland with a kills per set average of 12.72. She also matches Berry's block total of 51. Senior Sarah Cardenas leads UIW's defense with 240 digs on the year.
ACU leads the conference with a 2.40 blocks per set average and has 151 as a team. Freshman Lexi Mercier leads the Wildcats and the SLC with 98 blocks for the year, just two away from having the conference's only triple digit total in that category. She has also been a consistent force offensively with 114 kills. Her teammate Jennifer Loerch, a sophomore, leads the way in kills and is just three away from hitting 200 this season.
At the HPC, Thursday night's match with Incarnate Word gets set for 7 p.m., and Saturday's tilt with Abilene Christian gets underway at 2 p.m. The Privateers get a break next week and return to action November 2 at Southeastern, and the next home match takes place November 7 against Northwestern State.
