UNO Opens La Tech Tournament with Pair of Losses

RUSTON, La. - The New Orleans volleyball program dropped a pair of matches on Friday to open the Louisiana Tech Invitational.

UNO (0-6) was defeated 3-0 (25-12, 25-10, 25-15) by Western Michigan in the morning before being dropped 3-0 (25-18, 25-9, 25-17) by McNeese State in the afternoon.

Freshman Cara Sander had a career-high six kills to lead the UNO in the first contest of the day with Kelsea Hundtoft and Marti Richmiller adding five and four kills, respectively. Ariane Labrzycki totaled 10 assists and Lauren Levy accounted for seven digs.

WMU (3-1) received a match-high 16 kills from Stephenee Yancy. Yancy hit .542 for the contest and the Broncos hit .375 as a team. Alysia Baznik added seven ills with Lexie Pawlik distributing 33 assists.

The opening set was the most competitive of the match as the squads exchanged leads three times with six ties. WMU broke a 7-all tie with an 11-1 run to move ahead 18-7 and gain momentum en route to winning the opening set.

In the next two sets, the Broncos never lost control of the lead with a single tie early on in each frame.

Later in the day, Richmiller produced a season-high 10 kills for the Privateers in the setback against MSU (4-2). The double-digit kill performance was the senior's first since posting 11 in last season's finale against Centenary.

Alyssa Podwell added six kills for the Privateers, who received 12 assists from Labrzycki and 10 more from Celeste Ramirez.  Levy topped all UNO players with 10 digs while Ashley Everett and Sander put a hand on two blocks apiece.

The opposing Cowgirls hit .299 for the match while holding the Privateers to a 0.081 clip. MSU received a match-high 14 kills from Maline Sanchez with Courtni Bauer and Sophie Tenbusch contributing seven kills apiece. Vanessa Bentley distributed 30 assists with Sanchez completing a double-double with a match-high 13 digs.

A series of runs allowed MSU to post the victory in Friday's non-conference match.

MSU broke open a 14-13 first set by scoring five straight points.  The Cowgirls never trailed in the second stanza after opening the scoring on an 11-2 run. The third frame featured a 9-1 spurt by MSU to reverse a 6-3 deficit and seize control until the final point.

Still seeking their first win of the season, UNO will go against host LTU. The first match-up between the former Sun Belt rivals since 2002 will feature live stats and video available through LaTechSports.com.