Courtesy of LA Tech Athletic Communications
Jailen Hurley had a season-high 14 kills and Charlize Williams finished with eight blocks to lead Louisiana Tech past New Orleans in straight sets on Saturday afternoon inside the Human Performance Center in New Orleans.
Tech (6-7) defeated the Privateers in straight sets (25-17, 25-16, 25-20), one day after dropping a pair of matches to Georgia State (25-21, 25-13, 25-19) and UC Riverside (28-30, 25-21, 25-15, 25-20).
“This was exactly the match we needed to bounce back and regain some confidence heading into conference play,” said Tech head coach Amber McCray on the win over UNO. “We had stellar performances all around, but hitting .402 as a team is an amazing feat that everyone was a part of.
“From our passers and defenders who kept us in system and allowed us to utilize all of our options majority of the match, to our setters who did an excellent job with their choices and keeping our hitters in advantageous situations, to our hitters for staying aggressive and executing, this hitting clip was a total team effort”
In Saturday’s win over UNO, Williams got busy early with three blocks within the first four points for the Bulldogs (6-7) to give them an early 4-2 lead. After two more points for the Dogs, the Privateers (2-10) called a timeout. UNO would turn the momentum in their favor with an 8-2 run to take a two-point lead. The Bulldogs quickly righted the ship and made an 8-2 run of their own. From there, the lead would gradually grow to nine before settling back to the final margin of eight at 25-17.
The Bulldogs took control of the second set early, with contributions from seven different players. The Privateer attackers changed their gameplay and worked around the block on the Dogs’ middle blockers, but Tech’s offense continued their phenomenal play. The Bulldogs finished with 14 kills on 25 attempts and just two errors for a .480 hitting clip. After two sets, LA Tech was hitting .479 and only committed three errors.The third set was a different tune as UNO jumped out to a 5-1 lead, forcing the Bulldogs to call a timeout.
Tech quickly went to work out of the timeout and chipped away at the deficit before a Hurley kill gave the Bulldogs the lead for good at 12-11. After that kill, Williams combined with Hurley and then with Megan Cooley for back-to-back blocks. Tech would get five more points to extend the lead to eight. UNO would make things interesting with a couple of three-point runs, but Hurley shut the door with the final two points of the match.
Tech finished with a .402 hitting clip for the match, their highest of the season. Hurley finished with 14 kills on a .591 clip, while Cooley chipped in eight kills on a .500 hitting mark. Williams finished with eight blocks, and Meghan Scharpenberg had 23 assists.
Chelsea Daffin led UNO with nine kills. Define Eciroglu and Alexis Belarmino both had 14 assists.
The Bulldogs start Conference USA action on Friday, September 27 when they take on Liberty inside the Thomas Assembly Center. The weekend matchup will be streamed live on ESPN+.
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