RUSTON, La. -- The Louisiana Tech Volleyball team dropped their season finale to UAB despite 12 kills from senior Jordyn Carswell Saturday afternoon inside the Thomas Assembly Center.
 
LA Tech finishes the year with a 9-19 overall record, an eight-win improvement from a season ago, and a 1-11 mark in Conference USA play. UAB improves to 11-13 overall and 6-5 in C-USA with the win, claiming a spot in next week's conference tournament. Scores of the match in favor of UAB were 25-14, 25-21, 25-22.
 
UAB held an early 7-6 before a 7-1 burst lifted the Blazers to a 14-7 advantage. A 5-0 run on kills by sophomore Carly Doros and freshman Jaena Bell as well as back-to-back ace serves by sophomore Meghan Dunnigan cut the Lady Techsters deficit down to two at 14-12. UAB answered, scoring 12 of the final 14 points to claim the set 25-14.
 
With the score knotted at 6-6 early in set two, UAB got back-to-back kills from Alex Keels to take a 9-7 advantage. The Lady Techsters took the lead right back at 11-9 with a kill by sophomore Mackenzie Murray and a solo block by Marley Maurer. UAB then used a 11-2 surge to take a 20-13 lead. Sophomore Morgan Smith sparked a 6-0 run with a kill to cut the Blazers lead down to one at 21-20 before three straight points helped give UAB a 25-21 set win.
 
Set three saw both teams battle back-and-forth until a 5-0 surge game the Blazers a 14-10 lead. UAB extended their advantage out to as much as 18-12 before a block by Carswelll and Smith cut the score to 22-19. The Lady Techsters fought off three Blazers match points with another Carswell kill before a kill by UAB capped off the night.
 
NOTABLES

• Jordyn Carswell capped off her career with a team high 12 kills and 10 digs. It was the ninth time this season she has recorded double-digit kills and her fifth double-double of the season.
• Morgan Smith collected nine kills on a team-high .533 hitting percentage this afternoon, the fifth time she has hit over .500 in a games this season.
• Freshman libero McKenzie Johnson led the Lady Techsters back row with 20 digs.
• Johnson has recorded 20 or more digs in 10 games this season and has collected double-digit digs in 22-of-the-24 games she has played in.
• Johnson set her second school record of the season, recording the single season digs per set record by averaging 5.24 digs per set.
• Johnson currently ranks first in C-USA in digs per set (5.24 d/s) and second in total digs with 445.
• The Lady Techsters out-blocked the Blazers 9-5 in the match.
• This was the fourth straight game the Lady Techsters have out-blocked their opponent.

QUOTABLE
Head Coach Amber McCray
"Ending a season is always hard especially on a weekend we felt we had a great opportunity to end on a high note. Morgan Smith completed a solid weekend offensively and defensively for us today. McKenzie Johnson notching 20 digs in just three sets continued to show she is going to be a force in that position for years to come. It was also special to see our lone senior Jordyn Carswell go out with another double-double to add to her career collection. I am proud of the leadership she showed this season for this extremely young team and the amount of growth she showed us in just a few short months. We are thankful for her contributions to this program and will forever grateful that she's a part of the Lady Techsters family."


SOCIAL MEDIA
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