LAFAYETTE, La. – The New Orleans Privateers gave the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns everything they could handle and fell just on the short end of a 3-2 (25-19, 24-26, 25-21, 19-25, 15-12) decision against the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns on Sunday at Earl K. Long Gym.
The deciding set saw the Cajuns build an early 5-2 lead, but the Privateers kept threatening to level the score in the race to 15.
New Orleans eventually tied the score at 9-9 and were within a point down 13-12 after a Cajuns service error. However, Cailin Demps and Grace Sweeney each registered a kill to close out the weekend in favor of the home side.
The Privateers built a small cushion in the opening set when they led by as many as four points at 13-9. The Cajuns rallied back to take the advantage late in the set on two consecutive aces from Kennedy Gustafsson, which forced a timeout while the Privateers trailed 18-16.
The Cajuns extended their advantage from there and wound up taking the opening set 25-19. After seven attack errors at the media timeout, the Cajuns had no attack errors for the remainder of the set.
New Orleans jumped ahead early in the second set but had to withstand a Cajuns rally once again. After Louisiana leveled the score at 16-16,
Courtney Roundtree produced kills in two of the next three rallies. Roundtree had six total kills in the set including on what turned out to be the penultimate point in extra rallies.
Louisiana and the Privateers battled through a fierce third set, but the Cajuns engineered 16 kills and went on a 10-4 run to end the set 25-21. That gave the home side a 2-1 lead in the match.
The Privateers pushed the match to a deciding fifth set after the defense stymied the Cajuns' attack throughout. Louisiana hit only .103 in the fourth set and had eight kills while the Privateers had 14 kills on the set.
Celia Mbaya's kill ensured the match headed to a deciding fifth set.
This was the first five-set match between the two sides since October 2009 at the Human Performance Center.
INSIDE THE BOX
Roundtree finished with 18 kills on the match.
Alessandra Meoni had nine kills and
Ania Anderson added seven. Mbaya and
Lani Alleman each had 15 digs.
Ella Moss (14) and
Peyton Cole (11) also reached double figures in digs.
Defne Eciroglu had 33 assists and nine digs.
NEXT UP
The Privateers will travel to Towson for the Towson Tiger Invitational next weekend. They will play Towson, Kent State and Stonehill.
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