NEW ORLEANS, La. – The New Orleans Privateers volleyball team (4-6) dropped both matches in the final day of the Louisiana Tech Invitational after closing the weekend by falling 3-1 (25-22, 25-27, 25-20, 26-24) to the Texas-Pan American Broncs.
The Privateers got off to a fast start in the first set against the Broncs, winning four of the first five rallies. That lead was short-lived as New Orleans was playing mostly from behind. The Privateers had nine attack errors in the first set.
New Orleans won their only set of the day by jumping to a 5-1 lead behind a pair of early tandem blocks both involving
Rondolyn Bryant. The Privateers had two unsuccessful tries at set point before
Cara Sander finished off the set with two kills to break a 25-25 tie.
From there, Texas-Pan American was able to rely on the service game in tight spots. Tied at 16-16 in the third set, the Broncs went on a 9-4 blitz to finish the set. A pair of service aces was mixed in that run for the Broncs. In the fourth and deciding set, Texas-Pan American rallied from a 20-16 deficit by winning six consecutive points.
New Orleans rallied back to take a 24-23 lead and had set point, but gave serve back on an error. Krysta Freitas finished off the match for the Broncs by coming up with an ace. There were 21 combined aces in the match (New Orleans-11 UTPA-10).
Brooklyn Frank led the team in kills with 12. Mikayla Sellers-Wiebe added 11 kills along with 10 digs, and Sander chipped in with 10 kills. Celeste Ramirez added 22 digs and Lauren Levy added 11. Sara Hammoutene had three aces for the Privateers. New Orleans fell in the block department 11-5 on the match.
Haley Durham led the attack for the Broncs with 15 kills. Alisha Watson added nine kills and Diara Reynolds followed with nine. Corynn Acuff was in on six blocks (one solo, five assist) as the Broncs earned their first win in 17 tries against the Privateers. Texas-Pan American had an attack percentage of .200 on the match.
To open the day, the Privateers lost 3-0 (30-28, 25-15, 25-14) to the Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters. The Privateers fell behind 4-0 to start the first set, but the next 15 rallies saw no advantage on either side. New Orleans trailed 11-8 when the Lady Techsters hit another mini run to grow the lead to seven points.
Ramirez went on serve with New Orleans trailing 22-16, and the Privateers responded by winning the next five rallies. The Privateers had to defend against set point, trailing 24-22 but got an attack error on Louisiana Tech's side followed by a tandem block from Frank and
Ashley Everett to push the first set to extra rallies. The service game clinched a long first set for Louisiana Tech. With the score tied at 28-28, the Privateers committed a service error. Then Brooke Short went on serve and delivered one of two Louisiana Tech aces on the day.
The second set started tight with Louisiana Tech holding an 11-10 lead before starting to gain some separation. Louisiana Tech won eight of the last nine rallies to finish the second set in their favor. The third set saw the Lady Techsters race to an early 7-1 lead and never look back on their way to the three-set win.
In the match, Sellers-Wiebe and Sander each had nine kills. Frank added six kills to the attack and led the team in digs with 14. Hammoutene and Ramirez also reached double figures in digs with 13 each. The Privateers were outpaced in the block column 13-2 on the match.
Louisiana Tech was led by Emilee Dechant who had nine kills and was in on nine blocks (two solo, seven assist). Rebecca Redgen added nine kills and Jacie McClure had 27 digs. Angela Papach had six kills on 10 attacks with five of those kills coming in the third set.
The Privateers will head to Conway, Ark. to take part in the UCA Tournament against UNLV, Grambling, and host Central Arkansas.
