HOUSTON, Texas – The New Orleans Privateers volleyball team gave new Head Coach
Millicent Van Norden a winning start to her Privateers career, defeating the Texas Southern Tigers 3-1 (25-22, 25-21,18-25, 25-22) on Friday afternoon at the Texas Southern Invitational.
The win was also the Privateers first season-opening win since the 2009 season.
"I am very proud of our team for keeping their composure and responding to adversity," said Van Norden. "We came out with intensity and it showed. We battled back in the fourth set after falling behind, which is what I am most proud of with our effort today."
New Orleans (1-0) was led by the freshmen duo of
Cara Sander and
Rondolyn Bryant putting forth a combined 28 kills; Sander had a team-high 16 in the win that included two key kills in the first set to get the win.
Texas Southern (0-1) did fall behind 2-0 in the match, but showed fight thereafter by winning the third set. The Tigers remained ferocious in the fourth set, taking a 6-0 lead to start; however, the Privateers weathered the storm, steadily gaining ground and went on to tie it at 21 on a Bryant kill. Both teams went back and forth for the next two points, but it was the Privateers rallying to a 25-23 victory.
The Privateers received a strong effort from junior
Sara Hammoutene in her first collegiate start with 16 assists and five digs, while junior
Celeste Ramirez followed with 11 assists and seven digs. Leading all Privateers in digs was junior
Lauren Levy with nine, followed by Ramirez and
Mikayla Sellers-Wiebe with seven each.
Robyn Shannon and Audriana Carson led the Tigers with 14 and 13 kills, respectively. The Tigers used a total of 16 student-athletes in today's match.
New Orleans returns to action on Saturday morning when they play their final two games of the Texas Southern Invitational. The first match is against Prairie View A&M at 9 a.m., with the second match against Grand Canyon at 1 p.m. Updates will be available on twitter @Privateers_VB and @UNOPrivateers.
