NASHVILLE- Day Two of the Tennessee State Invitational was indeed a great one for the University of New Orleans volleyball team. Less than 12 hours after falling to host Tennessee State in five sets, the Privateers swept two games in a four-hour span with wins over Florida International and Alcorn State.
The Privateers (4-2) faced the Lady Braves for the second time in 8 days. Just like the previous encounter, New Orleans comfortably defeated Alcorn 3-0 (25-13, 25-20, 25-16.) UNO downed Alcorn State (0-8) in three sets on August 25, the season opener in New Orleans at the New Orleans Invitational.
UNO road a balanced attack to the win as both
Kaitlyn Grice and
Blessing Dunn had 10 kills.
Lane Hindenburg, a junior from Palatine, Illinois, had a solid day with 9 kills of her own. Nela Grau had 34 assists against the Lady Braves.
New Orleans has completed one-third of a nine-game road swing. The weekend in Nashville gave UNO a taste of what to expect the next six games.
"I think we learned no matter the situation we are resilient, said head coach
Millicent Van Norden. "We don't play our circumstances, we just play hard and we learned that we need to get off to a better start in order to do a better job of dictating how it ends."
In the first action of the day, UNO came back from a two set deficit against Florida International for a thrilling victory, 3-2 (14-25, 14-25, 26-24, 25-23, 15-12.)
Sophomore
Rhyan Rand, out of Lindale, Texas, had a big day with 14 kills and 14 digs. Freshman
Kyra Hunter had 8 kills and 11 assists. Nela Grau led New Orleans with 3 service aces and 32 assists. Junior Lane Hindenberg's seventh and final kill of the frame came on match point.
"With the quick turnaround I expected us to be a little sluggish but to bounce back because we train really hard for situations like this." Van Norden continued, "We were able to make adjustments and some of our personnel from the sidelines came in a made plays. People like
Rhyan Rand and
Savannah Matthews (6 assists, 12 digs) really came in to give us a lift this morning and that's how we were able to win."
New Orleans played 13 sets in 14 hours in Nashville. They have a record of 2-2 in five-set matches.
The Privateers will return to the action Friday and Saturday, September 8-9 when they travel to Denton, Texas for the North Texas Challenge. They'll face Campbell University, the University of North Texas and Oregon State University.
For more information on New Orleans Women's Volleyball and Privateers Athletics, visit our official website,
www.unoprivateers.com or follow us on social media.
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