NEW ORLEANS – The New Orleans Privateers 2021 volleyball season will get underway with two non-conference matches against local schools on Jan. 23. The Privateers will face Tulane and Southern Miss in Hattiesburg, Miss with the match times scheduled for 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.
This will be the third consecutive year the Privateers will face off against Tulane. The Privateers also faced off against and defeated Southern Miss in the Southern Miss Invitational in September 2019. Including this match, five of the last six contests against USM have been in Hattiesburg.
These matches will be the lone two before the Privateers dive into Southland conference play. New Orleans will start their conference season with road matches against Lamar and Nicholls on Feb. 2 and 4 respectively.
New Orleans returns several student-athletes from the 2019 campaign. Among them is
Lucie Pokorna, who was Third Team All-Southland and Second Team All-LSWA as a freshman.
Sh'Diamond Holly had a big impact freshman season as well with 194 kills (third on the team) and 98 total blocks. Holly ranked ninth in the Southland in blocks per set at 0.95.
Shelby Pullins also landed in the top ten in the conference in blocks per set last season with 0.93. Pullins registered 11 blocks in a match against McNeese last year, which was the fourth highest single match block total in program history.
Trinity Jackson,
Hannah Volpi,
Chloe Hampton, and
Nia St. Cyr round out the returners while seven newcomers dot the 2020-21 roster.
