The Book 2002-03 UL Lady Cajuns Volleyball

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Dan McDonald / Staff Writer
Posted on October 14, 2002
LAFAYETTE - Credit hard-earned experience, or credit the home court.

Or maybe, credit UL's volleyball team with finding the consistency that had been lacking in a season-opening 17-match road swing.

Whatever the reason, the Ragin' Cajuns apparently chose this weekend to post two of their best performances of the year, the most recent a dominating 30-19, 30-15, 30-18 win over Sun Belt Conference rival New Orleans Sunday at Earl K. Long Gym.

"We knew we were capable of playing like this," said coach Becky Madden. "We lost some close five-game matches on the road, and playing all those road games wears you down. These couple of wins shows what we're capable of."

The Cajuns certainly showed that, exploding from a 16-16 tie midway through the first game and scoring 19 of the match's next 22 points - a streak pretty much unheard of in rally scoring.

"We've played that well," Madden said of the Sunday win, "but only in spots. The last two matches, we've really cut down our errors and we've passed the ball well."

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[RaginRash]

Those volleyball chicks are HOT!

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LAFAYETTE - Louisiana's Lady Cajun volleyball team made a strong statement to the rest of the Sun Belt Conference here Friday night at Earl K. Long Gym.

The statement: the Cajuns are going to be a factor in the league's stretch run and will be a team to contend with at the conference tournament.

UL (13-12, 7-4) registered its biggest conference victory to date this season with a sound 3-0 (30-20, 30-26, 30-25) sweep of SBC West Division leader New Mexico State (20-6, 10-2).

The win was the fourth straight for the Cajuns and seventh in their last eight since a 0-3 start to the SBC slate. Louisiana remains undefeated at home this season and has now won 26 of its last 28 matches at Long Gym since the 1999 season.

Three Cajuns posted double-figure kills with Priscilla Lima leading the way with 14. Clarice Laires had 13 kills along with 14 digs while freshman Lesley Tough had 11 kills and 11 digs, giving the Cajuns two players with double-doubles.

Laires picked up her third straight double-double and attacked above .400 for the third consecutive match and raised her team-best season attack percentage to. 259. Tough notched her fourth straight double-double and her fifth straight match with double-digit kills.

UL out-killed NMSU 55-35, out-dug the Aggies 54-46, had a 49-34 assists advantage and had a team hitting percentage of .248 compared to just .123 for NMSU. The Aggies had entered the match as the SBC's top hitting team, attacking at a .256 clip.

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LAFAYETTE - New day, new opponent. Same venue, same result.

Louisiana's Lady Cajun volleyball team remained undefeated at home this season and ran their season-long winning streak to five matches with a 3-0 (30-16, 30-18, 30-24) pounding of an overmatched Denver Pioneer squad here Sunday afternoon at Earl K. Long Gym in front of 270 fans on Parent's Day.

The Ragin' Cajuns (14-12, 8-4 Sun Belt) extended their streak of straight set sweeps at Long Gym this season to five matches and have now won 15 consecutive games within the friendly confines. It was UL Lafayette's 27th win in the last 29 matches at Long Gym since the 1999 season.

The Cajuns have now won eight of their last nine matches since a 0-3 start to the SBC slate.

More importantly, Louisiana moves ahead of Arkansas-Little Rock for the No. 4 seed in the upcoming Sun Belt Conference Tournament to be held Nov. 21-23 in Miami. Depending on the outcome of the New Mexico State-North Texas match, the Cajuns could be only 1/2-game behind NT for the No. 3 seed.

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LAFAYETTE – Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns volleyball team has hit the home stretch of the 2002 regular season. They've also arrived at the most critical part of the season.

Fortunately for them, they will have the advantage of playing at home.

The Ragin' Cajuns (14-12, 8-4 Sun Belt) enter the final weekend of Sun Belt Conference action only one-half game behind North Texas for the third seed in the upcoming SBC Tournament being held Nov. 21-23 in Miami.

Those two teams will meet on Sunday, Nov. 17 in the Cajuns home finale, possibly with the third seed on the line.

But in order to be in that position, the Cajuns must take care of business Friday night against Middle Tennessee (16-13, 7-6 Sun Belt) at 7 p.m. in Earl K. Long Gym. NT faces Western Kentucky at home in Denton, Texas on Friday.

The good news for UL is that WKU has yet to lose a match in SBC play this season and NT has lost its last three matches. Equally as important, the Cajuns have yet to lose at home this season in both games (15) and matches (5).

Either way you look at it, Friday's match with MT is a must-win for Louisiana if they hope to capture the third seed and avoid Western Kentucky until the SBC Tournament championship match.

If previous performance is any indication, UL is in great shape heading into this weekend's action.

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[Louisiana]

Tonight at 7pm Middle Tennessee will come into Earl K. Long Gym where the Lady Cajun Volley ball team do not have a propensity of losing.. In fact they have not done so all year.

Coach Madden has done a masterful coaching job this year, having accepted the position just one month prior to the start of voleyball season.

Below are a few pictures of the Lady Cajuns getting ready for Middle Tennessee.

[Louisiana]

Priscila Lima, Clarice Laires,and Lindsey Bermes practice (in sequence) their serve.

[Louisiana]

Stacy Liverett, and Stacey Cole await a serve from Priscilla Lima, while coach Madden studies technique.

[Louisiana]

The Lady Cajun volleyball team have learned to play as a team, and continue to do so as they practice and get ready for the next tilt at Earl K. Long Gym.

[Cajun1997]

Originally posted by Staff

Coach Madden has done a masterful coaching job this year, having accepted the position just one month prior to the start of voleyball season.

I agree, these ladies have done a great job and have done the university proud. Coach Madden has done a tremendous job.