Louisiana Tech saw volleyball, soccer and cross country all host home events during a busy weekend in Ruston.
Soccer
The Lady Techsters soccer team dropped a 2-1 overtime decision to Charlotte in Conference USA action Sunday afternoon at Robert Mack Caruthers Soccer Field.
Kalli Matlock scored a goal – her second of the season – in the 59th minute to tie the game at 1-1 after Tech trailed 1-0 at intermission.
After neither team found the net over the final 30 minutes of regulation, they played the first 10-minute overtime period. With just seconds remaining in the OT, the 49ers scored on a rebound shot off the crossbar to end the contest.
“Overtime games are really tough emotionally,” said Interim Head Coach Steve Voltz. “There is not a magic word you can say to your players that is going to make things better. The way we dedicated ourselves in the second half, tying things up, and then having a couple of really good looks to win the game, it is something I was really proud of.”
Tech heads to Houston Friday to face the defending C-USA champion Rice Owls at 5 p.m.
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Cross Country
William Harrell finished third to lead the Bulldogs to a first-place finish at the annual Mook 4 hosted by Louisiana Tech at Tech Farm Saturday morning.
Riley Killian was the Lady Techsters top finisher in 6th place as Tech finished fourth on the women’s side.
Harrell recorded a time of 21:13.3 in the four-mile race while teammate John Barham also recorded a top 10 finish in 6th place with a mark of 21:32.7.
“We felt good overall,” said Harrell. “We just wanted the team to come out with a win since this was Coach (Gary) Stanley’s 40th home meet. We wanted to make sure we won the team title. We’ve had some workouts that Coach Stanley put us through that ensured that we would be able to make our move when the time came. So, I think we are pretty pleased with the results for the season opener, but we have some room to improve.”
Killian recorded a personal best time (15:19.5) in her effort in the 4K race. Rebecca Quebedeaux and Victoria Datta finished 13th and 14th in their first collegiate race at LA Tech.
“I came in with an open mind, ready to run,” said Killian. “I didn’t have a time goal coming into this meet; I just wanted to be competitive the whole race. I think the team did awesome today! We have a lot of new girls, and I am so proud of them.”
Grambling State’s Sharon Labich won the women’s race.
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Volleyball
The Lady Techsters won two out of three matches hosting the Louisiana Tech Invitational this weekend, including wins over UNO and Southern.
Tech (6-6) defeated Southern 3-0 Thursday and UNO 3-2 Saturday while falling to Little Rock (3-1) on Friday.
“We saw some areas of success this weekend and we saw multiple areas to improve on,” said Tech head coach Amber McCray. “We need to be better about playing low error and capitalizing on ‘Advantage Tech’ plays throughout matches. After dropping two five-setters in the past week it was good to see us grind out one for a win.”
Jordyn Carswell (10 kills) and Morgan Smith (10 kills) led Tech against Southern while Faith Menary (19 kills), Smith (13 kills) and Carswell (10 kills) led Tech against UNO. Carly Doros (11 kills) and Carswell (10 kills) paced the Techsters in the loss to Little Rock.
Tech will open C-USA play this weekend when it travels to San Antonio to face UTSA Friday and Saturday.
Photo: Sadie Patton
