MONROE, La. – Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns volleyball team repelled the ULM Warhawks in a 3-1 win on Tuesday night by scores of 25-13, 18-25, 25-17 and 25-14. UL improves to 6-11 overall and 3-4 in the Sun Belt Conference.
The first set started evenly, with an 8-8 tie after several minutes of play, but ended with a dominant series of rallies from the Cajuns. UL won 17 of the next 22 points to finish the match at 25-13, including six straight points on rallies started by Lindsay Brown serves. Louisiana ended the set with an impressive .370 hitting percentage.
Set No. 2 started, and ended, much differently as UL quickly went down 5-0. They battled back to a one-point deficit at 7-6, but that was the closest they would get. The Warhawks opened up a comfortable seven-point lead to close out the match at 25-18.
“As long as we don’t panic, we’re fine, and we didn’t, so we came back and won games three and four,” head coach Heather Mazeitis said. “I keep telling (the Cajuns) to be patient with their offense, and when we do that we can win.”
The third set opened with an exchange of six ties before ULM slipped ahead to a 12-10 lead. Louisiana charged back with four straight points, led off by an Amie Goodwin kill, followed by two straight service aces from Katie Kennedy, and capped by another Goodwin kill. The Cajuns capitalized on the momentum, outscoring ULM 11-5 in the remainder of the set, finishing at 25-17.
Louisiana closed out the match with a convincing 25-14 fourth set, despite trailing 6-2 early. They went on a furious 13-1 run, including five Cajuns’ kills, service aces from Goodwin and Elizabeth Inman, and six ULM attack errors.
For the match, the Cajuns were led by Inman, who nailed 12 kills on .250 hitting. Goodwin followed with 11 kills and Sonora Edwards slammed 10 to the floor on .348 hitting, a match best for players on both sides of the court with more than two attempts.
Kendra Hall posted 32 assists, as well as season-highs in kills and attack attempts, at three and seven respectively. Lindsay Brown led all players with 21 digs, three short of her season mark of 24, set at South Alabama on Oct. 10. Katie Kennedy chipped in 15 digs along with two kills on two attempts.
Inman and Hall each put three block assists, while Goodwin had one solo block and one assist. The Cajuns put up seven total blocks as a team.
Louisiana hosts two Sun Belt matches over the weekend, first against the Arkansas State Red Wolves Friday at 7 p.m., followed by a contest with the UALR Trojans on Sunday, slated to begin at 1 p.m. Both matches will be broadcast via a live video feed on RaginCajuns.com.
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