NEW ORLEANS – The University of New Orleans volleyball team travels to Conway, Arkansas for a Southland Conference match against Central Arkansas on Saturday, Oct. 15 at 12 p.m. The contest marks the end of the Privateers current road swing, where they have currently gone 1-1.
UNO looks for its first win against Central Arkansas since the initial bout back in the 1978 campaign. Since then, the teams have played five times with each contest going UCA's way.
"We are going up against one of the taller teams in our league in Central Arkansas," head coach
Millicent Van Norden explained. "They are strong on offense and at blocking, we will have to be as strong offensively and defensively to win the match."
New Orleans (4-15, 1-5 SLC) enters the contest after a 3-0 setback against Northwestern State on the road. The Privateers averages 11.2 kills on a .145 hitting percentage with 10.6 assists, 13.3 digs, 1.7 blocks and a Southland-Conference leading 1.54 service aces.
Freshman setter
Sarah Thomas (Accounting and Finance) quarterbacks the offense with 9.21 assists per set, third-highest in the conference, feeding the majority of her passes to freshman outside hitter
Jordan Yauch (Biological Science), sophomore
Blessing Dunn (Business Management) and
Brianna Vega (Biological Science) all average over two kills per set with marks of 2.68, 2.46 and 2.13 respectively. Senior middle blocker
Keke Richards (Business Management) is the most accurate hitter on the team with the eighth-highest hitting percentage in the SLC at .282. From the service line, junior outside hitter
Cara Sanders (Marketing) averages 0.33 service aces which ranks third in the league while sophomore
Lane Hindenburg (Exercise Science & Physiology) ranks 10
th with a 0.29 mark.
Defensively, sophomore defensive specialist
Samantha Uline (Exercise Physiology) paces the Privateers with 3.91 digs per set, seventh-best average in the conference, followed by Dunn and Yauch with 2.91 and 2.08. Junior middle blocker
Kaitlyn Grice (Biology) and
Rondolyn Bryant (Exercise Physiology) both have 42.0 total blocks so far this season.
Central Arkansas (9-11, 3-5 SLC) concludes a week on its home court after defeating Southeastern Louisiana 3-0 on Thursday, Oct. 13. The Bears rank in the top four of the SLC in every offensive category with 12.17 kills (4
th) on a .197 hitting percentage (3
rd) with 11.22 assists (4
th) and 1.41 service aces (2
nd). UCA also averages 13.38 digs and 2.20 blocks.
Haley Tippett leads the attack for Central Arkansas with 2.69 kills and 0.32 service aces, followed by Samantha Anderson with 2.58 kills. Megan Nash averages 2.19 kills on a .288 hitting percentage, the sixth-highest mark in the conference, while Elizabeth Armstrong averages 8.50 assists per match.
On defense, Amanda Dimon and Tippet pace the defense with 3.26 and 3.03 dig per set averages with Rayna Jefferis chipping in 2.25 per set. Savanah Allen and Nash enforce the net for the Bears with 1.12 and 1.05 blocks per set while Anderson and Nicole Peters average 0.88 and 0.85 respectively.
The Privateers return to the friendly confines of the Human Performance Center on Tuesday, Oct. 18 when they host Nicholls at 7 p.m., kicking off a three-match homestand. Admission to all home volleyball matches is free.
--www.UNOPrivateers.com--
