HAMMOND, La. – The New Orleans Privateers volleyball team (15-16) had a lot of high points throughout the 2022 season but it unfortunately came to an end with a 3-1 (27-25, 25-20, 21-25, 25-19) loss to the Texas A&M-Commerce Lions (11-22) in the opening round of the Southland Tournament at the University Center.
A 14-win turnaround from last season marked a big step in the right direction for a program that had its newest 1,000-dig member, the best home start in program history and three Player of the Week honors.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Privateers ran out to a 5-0 lead at the outset and had a 17-12 advantage. However, Texas A&M-Commerce came back with a four-point run of their own to close the gap to one. From there, the set was back and forth.
New Orleans had a first look at set point but the Lions saved it after a Privateer attack error. Once in extra rallies, Taryn Cast and Maddy Rashford strung together consecutive kills to finish out the set in the 7-seed's favor.
The second set saw Texas A&M-Commerce get out to a 14-9 lead. The Privateers then scored on the next three rallies to cut the lead to two but the Lions stretched it out again. The Lions scored in a variety of ways with two kills, a block and an ace in that span.
New Orleans hit .425 in the third set and staved off the Lions throughout. The third set was tied at 21-21 when the Privateers got kills from three different players to force a fourth set.
The fourth and what turned out to be final set saw a tight battle the whole way up until the Lions had a crucial service rotation. Lyric Hebert had three consecutive aces to put the Lions on the brink of finishing the match. That was done by Yasmin Figueiredo who registered a kill to move Texas A&M-Commerce into the second round.
INSIDE THE BOX
In their final matches,
Sheilah Purcell went for 34 of the team's 100 digs.
Mauri Carver had 12 kills and five total blocks.
Kristi Gomez finished with 16 kills on a .319 hitting percentage and 10 digs.
Trinity Jackson totaled 11 kills and 11 digs.
Three Lions finished with doubles figures in kills: Rashford (16), Cast (14) and Reese Fetty (11). Celeste Vela had 45 assists. Hebert and Essence Allen each finished with 20 digs.
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