NEW ORLEANS – The New Orleans Privateers volleyball season opens this weekend with three matches in the Sawyer Camillo Classic hosted in Lafayette. The Privateers will play Tarleton State (Friday-3 p.m.), Texas Southern (Saturday-12 p.m.) and Louisiana (Sunday-1 p.m.) at Earl K. Long Gym.
New Orleans is playing in the Sawyer Camillo Classic for the second time in the last three seasons. They also went to Lafayette for the 2023 edition where they played two matches against Louisiana and Prairie View.
Ashley Preston is in her fifth season at the helm of the squad, which features eight returners and 10 newcomers. The Privateers bring back their team leader in digs (
Lani Alleman), kills and blocks (
Courtney Roundtree), and assists (
Defne Eciroglu).
Alleman, a junior libero, enters the season ranked eighth in program history in digs per set. She had 229 digs as a sophomore while playing in 25 matches and 82 of the team's 93 sets in 2024.
Courtney Roundtree, who will enter her fourth and final year on the Lakefront, scored 259 points. The Maryland native totaled 213 kills and 57 blocks (21 solo). The senior middle blocker had eight matches with 10 more kills in 2024 including 19 against Alcorn State.
Akeir Scales switched to playing in the middle late in the season and had her two highest kill totals in matches against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (7) and Northwestern State (9) in the last week of the season. Scales was also second on the team in total blocks in 2024.
In the Privateers' Royal and White scrimmage,
Celia Mbaya and
Vanae Sapp co-led everyone in kills with nine apiece. Mbaya was an NJCAA All-American as a freshman at Colby JC. Sapp played three years at Dillard and led the Bleu Devils to the 2024 HBCUAC championship. She amassed 669 kills and 790 digs at Dillard.
Freshman,
Estrella Vazquez ran a 5-1 with the White Team in the scrimmage and had 21 assists. Vazquez was a two-time All-Metro selection and a two-time All-District pick at Baton Rouge Magnet.
Ella Moss led the Royal Team in digs with eight and had four service aces. Moss was part of four district championship teams at Barron Collier High School in Florida.
Eciroglu and
Rylie Hallman ran a 6-2 with the Royal Team. Hallman had 18 assists while Eciroglu tallied 17. Hallman was First Team All-Conference in her senior year of high school and had 613 assists along with 515 digs in two years at Pratt CC.
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