Balanced Attack, Career Performances Key Privateers' Victory Over Citadel

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ASHEVILLE, N.C. – The New Orleans Privateers volleyball team (6-4) finished off a winning weekend by dominating the opening set in a 3-1 win (25-9, 29-27, 25-27, 25-22) against the Citadel Bulldogs (4-7) on Saturday at the Justice Center. The Privateers closed out the weekend with three wins in four matches.
 
The clinching set saw the Privateers have to fight back from an early 7-1 hole. After earning serve back on a kill by Celeste Ramirez, New Orleans quickly erased a four-point deficit to tie the set at 9-9. The rest of the set was played evenly with 11 ties during the rest of the set. With both teams level at 21-21, New Orleans went on a quick three point spurt before getting the match clinching point on a Citadel attack error.
 
New Orleans was blazing to start the match, recording 17 kills with no errors in 30 attempts for a .567 hitting percentage. The Privateers led for almost the entire way and started the set with a 9-3 run. The set closed with a big run as well with New Orleans scoring the last six rallies in their favor.
 
Every other set was closely contested with two of them going to extra rallies. The second set saw neither team acquire a lead of more than two points. With the score tied at 27-27, Samantha Uline came up with a kill to put the Privateers up by one. New Orleans then ended the set with a tandem block, one of 10 on the match.
 
The Privateers raced out to an early 7-2 lead in the third set and kept the lead in the same ballpark for most of the set. Citadel had one major late surge though, overcoming a 24-21 deficit to extend the match to a fourth set.
 
Uline led the way in kills with 12 as four Privateers landed in double digits in the kill department. Kaitlyn Grice and Rondolyn Bryant added 11 each while Takierra Boughton posted 10. Bryant also was in on eight blocks (two solo, six assist). Ramirez had a full stat line with a career-best 54 assists, a team-high 21 digs, and five kills. She was also in on five blocks (all assist).
 
Ramirez's assist total and Bryant's block total are both career highs. Lauren Levy added 15 digs for the match and finished with 48 for the weekend. Uline had her first career double-double, adding 11 digs to her 12 kills.
 
Citadel was led by Moriah Smith who had 21 kills in 49 attempts (.347 attack percentage). Megan Sowell added 14 kills. Smith and Sowell accounted for 71 percent of the Bulldogs' kill output. Samantha Espy was one of four players with double figures in digs, registering 21. Citadel had seven total blocks on the match.
 
The Privateers will hit the road once again for their first mid-week match of the season against Southern Miss on Tuesday, Sept. 15. 
 
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