Final Stats | Tech vs. UAB

RUSTON, La. - The Louisiana Tech women's volleyball team ended a losing streak of four straight and brought home its first 2017 Conference USA victory on Sunday afternoon, defeating UAB 3-1 (14-25, 25-17, 25-18, 25-20) from the Thomas Assembly Center.

As a team, the Lady Techsters (6-13, 1-4 C-USA) outhit the Blazers (9-12, 3-3 C-USA), .285 to .136, while committing just 15 errors on 130 attacks on the afternoon.

"I trust this team, head coach Adriano de Souza said. "Our staff trusts our team. We believe they can keep growing. I'm very happy for the players because they have been working hard for their first conference win. We've had ups and downs in every match this season, but today we were able to keep our focus and commitment to helping each other. This resulted in great opportunities throughout the match."

A pair of seniors in Marta Monne and Brooke Short stepped up big for the Tech offense, which hummed to its highest hitting percentage of the season, at .285.

"Our players were very committed to cleaning up their offense today, de Souza added. "Marta, Gina (Cortesi) and Madeline (Davis) led the offense statistically, while Carter (Mirich) showed tremendous leadership and poise throughout the match. We always play better when we have more players on the same page, and I saw quite a bit of that today."

Short, on her 21st birthday, recorded a match-high 42 assists while adding six digs, three kills and a pair of service aces.

"Brooke's serves were crucial to our success today, concluded de Souza. "This will help the team tremendously in understanding how important serving is in creating points for our offense."

Monne continued her consistency from the outside hitter spot and led all players with 19 kills. The Milan, Italy, native also chipped in with 13 digs for her team-best ninth double-double of the season.

Rookie Gina Cortesi also posted a big night offensively, contributing double-digit kills (13) for the seventh time this year.

UAB was led by Gabby Deshotel who registered nine kills and 13 digs, while teammate Shelby Holderfield dished out 35 assists.

In the first set, the Blazers looked like the team to beat, racing out to an 18-8 edge. Tech would mount a small rally. But could not recover from the early deficit, and dropped the first set, 25-14. UAB hit its highest percentage of the evening in the opening frame (.240) while limiting the Techsters to their lowest mark of the night at .108.

The second set was a turning point in the match, however, as Tech hit a blistering .444 while committing just two errors, en route to a 25-17 triumph.

The third and fourth sets saw much of the same, with Tech leading throughout and limiting the Blazers to just 23 combined kills in the final frames. Fittingly, a Monne kill, assisted by Short, wrapped up the match bringing Tech its first league triumph of the season.

Tech returns to action this Friday, wrapping up a two-match homestand against conference-foe Southern Miss. Stay tuned to @LATechVB on Twiter, Facebook and Instagram for all news and updates on the Lady Techsters.