Nov. 10, 2009
Final Stats
RUSTON--The Lady Techster volleyball team's seniors finished their final match on their home court with a five set win over Centenary (4-23) Tuesday night in the Thomas Assembly Center. Set scores were 25-17, 22-25, 25-20, 24-26 and 15-8.
It was a nail-biter, but Tech's seniors finished with a win. Nataliya Panova had a solid night for the Techsters (15-16, 4-10 WAC), recording her 10th double-double of the season as she led Tech in kills with 16 and digs with 19. Kassia Pinto continued her hot play for Tech as she registered her fifth double-double of the season and her third straight. The junior totaled 11 kills and 12 digs. Senior KC Clayton led Tech in blocks with seven. Tech's other two seniors also contributed to the win as Lindsay Armstrong recorded two kills and two digs while Samantha Crowder accumulated 1 kill and two blocks.
"It was great to get a win in our final home match against an in-state rival, especially on senior night," Head coach Matt Sonnichsen said. "We are going to miss having Lindsay (Armstrong), KC (Clayton) and Sam (Crowder) playing for us for years to come. They did a great job this year and were very instrumental in helping us get this program pointing in the right direction. They never lost faith after having a few tough years here and never quit believing that we could get things going in the right direction here."
The first set of the match went back-and-forth with 10 tie scores and five lead changes. However, with the score tied at 16 Tech would go on a 9-1 run to win the set 25-17. Pinto led Tech with 4 kills in the set.
The Techsters fell into an offensive funk in the second set and were unable to find an answer for the Centenary offense as Tech was unable to gain a lead throughout the set, dropping set two 25-22 to the Ladies.
The two teams split sets three and four with Tech taking set three 25-20 and Centenary winning the fourth 26-24 after the set was sent into deuce.
After digging themselves into a 3-0 hole in the final set, the Techster offense finally got going as the team rallied off 5 straight points to take a 5-3 lead. Centenary would not go away though as the Ladies fought back to make it 7-7. Tech then turned it on and went on an 8-1 run to end the set 15-8 and the match.
"We had a nice home stand this year," Sonnichsen said. "Hopefully we will continue that to make sure that it's known that the Thomas Assembly Center is a great place for Louisiana Tech volleyball."
"Also I would like to complement Centenary. They played extremely well tonight. They are in a transition as well and I was very impressed with their fire and how hard they played." The win for Tech is their 15th of the season and their ninth home win. The 15 wins is the most in a season since 2005. Next the Techsters will travel to Fresno, Calif. Thursday to take on Fresno State at 9 p.m. CT in WAC action.
