NEW ORLEANS, La. – The New Orleans Privateers volleyball team (5-9, 0-2 Southland) fell in a hard fought three-set matc,h 3-0 (25-23, 25-13, 27-25) to the Southeastern Lady Lions (3-9, 1-0) on Tuesday night at the Human Performance Center.
The Privateers had a huge run with
Sara Hammoutene on serve in the opening set. After a Southeastern service error, New Orleans ripped off six straight points to take a 20-16, which was keyed by three consecutive blocks. The Lady Lions responded with a five-point run out of a timeout, and eventually capped off the first set 25-23 on a service ace.
Southeastern overcame a sluggish start in the service game with a much stronger second set. After five service errors in the first set, the Lady Lions only committed one in the second set and hit at a .450 clip. The Lady Lions raced to an 8-1 lead and never looked back, carrying a 2-0 lead into the break.
"I feel like blocking is the one area where we were the most successful overall," said Head Coach
Millicent Van Norden. "We need to find a way to be more competitive early on in sets. I feel like overall defensively we outplayed Southeastern tonight, but we need to start sets quicker."
After falling behind 4-1 to start the third set, Coach Van Norden called a quick timeout and the Privateers came out of the stoppage with three straight points to tie the set. The set was tied at three more points before Southeastern grew a 20-15 lead.
The Privateers had one final run, but fell just short. Trailing 23-18, Hammoutene was on serve again as New Orleans scored the next five rallies keyed by two
Cara Sander kills to tie the set. New Orleans had set point at 25-24, but a kill by Veronica Turk gave serve back to the Lady Lions who finished off the match.
Sander led the Privateers with 14 kills.
Rondolyn Bryant had five kills and was in on six blocks (three solo, three assist).
Mikayla Sellers-Wiebe had 11 digs and
Lauren Levy added 10. The Privateers had nine blocks to just four for Southeastern.
The Lady Lions were paced by Parrie Hartley who had 12 kills. Tiffany Thomas added nine and Veronica Turk chipped in with eight. Southeastern hit .450 in the second set and had an attack percentage of .240 on the night. Southeastern wound up with ten service errors, but also had nine service aces.
New Orleans will take back to the court on Thursday against Houston Baptist. First serve is slated for 6:30 p.m.
