Privateers Fall to Eastern Washington on Saturday

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NEW ORLEANS, La. – The New Orleans Privateers volleyball team (2-3) held Eastern Washington (3-3) in check early, but fell in three sets (25-23, 25-20, 25-17) on Saturday morning at the Human Performance Center. With the win, the Eagles clinched first place in the New Orleans Invitational.
 
The Privateers took the first set down to the wire, gaining an advantage as large as four at one point. Trailing 23-20, the Privateers battled back to cut the deficit to 24-23 before Allie Schumacher registered a kill to finish off the set for Eastern Washington. In the set, New Orleans held the Eagles to a .111 hitting percentage.
 
The second set saw 13 ties and seven lead changes in a back-and-forth affair. A service error put the Privateers within one, but New Orleans saw two straight attack errors on their side push the Eastern Washington lead to 22-19. The Eagles finished off the second set as they did the first with a Schumacher kill.
 
New Orleans was chasing much of the third set, trailing by as many as 10 at one point when they were down 20-10. The Privateers had a mini spurt after that point, scoring the next three rallies in their favor, but that was as close as they would get the rest of the set.
 
Rondolyn Bryant led the Privateers' attack with nine kills in 18 attempts.  Bryant also had three block assists to co-lead the team in that category. Kaitlyn Grice added eight kills on a .467 hitting percentage and two service aces. Shaylene Reimer had seven digs and the Privateers had seven aces as a unit to eight service errors.
 
Eastern Washington was led by Schumacher's 10 kills. Ana Jakovljevic and Jessica Gilbert each added eight kills and Alexis Wesley chipped in with five. The Eagles had six aces with two each coming from Jakovljevic and Ryann Ensrud. Ensrud was the only player to reach double figures in digs on the match with 11.
 
The Privateers will close the weekend against La Salle at 5 p.m.
 
To keep up with the latest New Orleans volleyball news, follow the team on Twitter@UNOPrivateers and @Privateers_VB or by liking New Orleans Privateers on Facebook.