NEW ORLEANS, La. – The New Orleans Privateers volleyball team (6-11, 0-4 Southland) returns home and to conference play on Thursday against the Central Arkansas Sugar Bears (8-7, 3-0) at the Human Performance Center. First serve is for 6:30 p.m.
The Privateers are fresh off a three-set win over Alcorn State, the second victory against the Lady Braves this season. In the win, New Orleans hit .519 to set the tone in the first set with 14 kills and no errors out of 27 attacks. New Orleans' .295 hitting percentage for the match was the second-highest this season.
Kelsea Hundtoft went for six kills to help pace a balanced attack in Tuesday's win. Hundtoft was playing her second match off an injury that kept her out of eight prior matches over a 13-day span. In all, the Privateers' attack had a season-low eight attack errors.
Rondolyn Bryant went for a match-high four solo blocks and had another block assist. Bryant now has 19 total blocks in the last five matches. On Tuesday, Bryant had six kills and no errors in 11 swings for a hitting percentage of .545.
This is the second meeting between the Privateers and Sugar Bears this season. New Orleans took a set off of the defending Southland Champions before eventually falling 3-1 in the opener of the Sugar Bear Invitational on Sept. 19. New Orleans is 1-3 in four career meetings against Central Arkansas.
The Sugar Bears have overcome a slow start against a tougher schedule to win three straight and five of the last six. Central Arkansas had started the season 1-5. Central Arkansas has the highest hitting percentage (.204) of any school in the conference entering Thursday.
Central Arkansas is led offensively by Heather Schnars who has racked up 206 kills in 54 sets played. Schnars is ranked third in the conference in kills per set with 3.81. Alicia Dittrich is second in the conference in hitting percentage (.309).
The match will be broadcast live on unoprivateers.com/watch with pre-game at 6:20 p.m.
