RUSTON, La.  –  The Louisiana Tech volleyball team survived a late scare from Nicholls to earn a 3-2 (25-14, 25-22, 23-25, 23-25, 15-9) victory in its home opener.
 
Madeline Davis led the Techsters with 15 kills on a .378 hitting percentage, and Kaitlyn Adams contributed 14 more kill while hitting .306. Tech also put together its best performance of the year at the net, totaling up 11 blocks with Marie-Helene Verlindin playing a role in 8 of them.
 
"I'm happy to be able to grit out another five set win," said LA Tech head coach Amber McCray "I felt like we came out pretty hot and stayed keyed in on the game plan early on, but about halfway through we started making mistakes. Our blocking was huge to help us pull out the win. We were able to get their hitters out of system a little bit and make them scramble."
 
The Techsters were in control early, hitting .344 in the first set en route to a dominating 25-14 win. Abigail Hildenbrand provided a near-flawless performance at setter, distributing 9 assists while three of her hitters posted better than .500 attack percentages. Marie-Helene Verlinden and Jordyn Carswell were two of those three and combined for seven kills.  
 
The Colonels kept it close in the second set, but the Techsters played an almost perfect frame to take a 2-0 lead. Tech made just two attacking errors in the second set and hit .333. Davis provided the offensive punch with five kills while Hildenbrand and Mia Prostran combined for ten assists.
 
"Maddy and Kaitlyn carried us offensively. It was huge to have players who can step up in those moments and hit so efficiently," said McCray
 
Nicholls bounced back to take the next two sets with a little help from the Lady Techsters. The Colonels won both the third and fourth sets 25-23 as Tech committed 18 errors across the two frames. Davis and Adams' offensive production kept the Techsters in both sets, but they were unable to overcome their errors combined with a feisty team on the other side of the net.
 
Adams led Tech's bounce-back performance in the fifth set. The senior racked up four kills in the frame, including two in a run that put the Techsters up 12-7. From there, Tech took three of the final five points to pull out the five-set win.
 
The Lady Techsters will be back in Thomas Assembly Center on Saturday, Sept. 14 when they take on Mississippi Valley State at 12:30 p.m. and UL-Monroe at 4:30 p.m.
 
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