Privateers Fall in Five Sets to Southern

BATON ROUGE, La. – For the third time in as many matches the University of New Orleans (10-12) forced a fifth set, but it was not enough as Southern University (3-13) defeated the Privateers 3-2 (25-23, 20-25, 22-25, 25-20, 13-15) Tuesday evening in the Cliford Seymour Gym.
 
Kaitlyn Grice and Kyra Hunter finished with 15 kills apiece. Brianna Vega (10 kills, 11 digs) and Blessing Dunn (11 kills, 15 digs) recorded double-doubles. The Privateers used three liberos in the match Andrea Nava started sets one and two, Breanna Crain started set three, and Samantha Uline started sets four and five.
 
SET ONE
Southern closed the score to 23-20 with a 6-1 run and went from -.230 hitting to -.074 to force a New Orleans timeout. But UNO took set one 25-23. Dunn finished set one with five kill and two blocks. Grice and Rand added two blocks apiece.
 
SET TWO
The Jaguars started set two off strong getting out to a 4-1 lead. Later in the set, the Privateers went on a 5-0 as they tied the game at 13 on a kill from Grice and then took the lead with a kill from Omoghibo. But a few moments later Southern took set two 25-20 to even things up at 1-1.
 
SET THREE
Just like in set two Southern started the set very strong getting out to a 5-1 lead. But the Privateers made things interesting at going on a 5-0 run to make it 18-15 Southern. But the Jags took a 2-1 lead in the match with a 25-22 set three win.
 
SET FOUR
The Privateers started set four with a 7-4 and led by five at times in the set. As New Orleans sent the match to set five with a 25-20 set four win. Vega and Grice combined for nine kills for the Privateers.
 
SET FIVE
UNO opened set five with a 4-0 lead highlighted by a pair of aces from Vega. The Jags would take their first lead of the set at 12-11 to force UNO to take a timeout. And moments later Southern took the match 3-2 with a 15-13 set win.
 
WHAT'S NEXT
The Privateers return to Southland Conference play Thursday as they take on Abilene Christian in the Human Performance Center.
 
SOCIAL MEDIA
Fans are encouraged to follow @PrivateersVB on Twitter, @PrivateersVB on Instagram, like /PrivateersVB on Facebook and subscribe to the PrivateerAthletics YouTube channel.