Ruston – With the seventh seed on the line, the Louisiana Tech volleyball team had their best performance of the season with their second sweep of Jacksonville State on Friday in the Thomas Assembly Center.
Louisiana Tech (8-20, 3-13) carried the momentum from the previous day by jumping out to an 8-3 lead. Tech would cruise to a 25-15 opening set victory and a .400 hitting clip.
Just like the day before, Jacksonville State (5-21, 3-13) continued to put up a fight. The teams would combine for nine ties and three lead changes throughout the set.
With the score tied at 18, Izabely Benjamin took over with three kills in the final seven points for the Bulldogs. Tech would finish on a 7-3 run to take the 2-0 advantage.
McKenzie Johnson and Sa'Myah Medford tried everything possible to get the Bulldogs to pull away early. Medford would have three kills, and Johnson would contribute two aces to give Tech a 10-6 lead. However, the Gamecocks would claw back and force 10 ties in the set.
With the score tied for the final time at 17-all, LA Tech put together mini runs to take eight of the last 11 points and the match 3-0 (25-15, 25-21, 25-20).
Louisiana Tech had their highest hitting percentage of the year at .291. Jailen Hurley and Benjamin led the Bulldogs with 11 kills each. Sydney Jackwin finished with 17 digs.
QUOTABLES
Head coach
Amber McCray
"I am beyond proud of the way our team responded after such a huge program win last night to come back refocused and ready to play as complete a game as we played in this win today.
Jailen Hurley was unstoppable all weekend leading us in kills and coming up with some true momentum building blocks, while
Courtney Carter's big-time kills, blocking and her fiery presence on the court completed a lethal right side attack for us today. I also can't speak enough on both of our middles,
Sa'Myah Medford and
Anaya Hairston, who absolutely dominated the net all weekend with so many stuff blocks, positive touches and crucial kills in key moments. Our passing and defensive core of
Sydney Jackwin,
McKenzie Johnson and
Izabely Benjamin was outstanding today and gave us so many in-system opportunities for our offense, which our setting duo of
Grace Krohn and
Lauren Albrecht did an excellent job of capitalizing on through their set distribution all weekend to give us two of our highest team hitting efficiencies all year. Our sideline came in clutch today as well calling and confirming on any balls close to the end lines and constantly bringing the energy again. Last but definitely not least, our team defense from our serve, block and floor defenders played lights out all weekend, and that was largely due to the game strategy coordinated by my two assistants,
Alex Holt and
Bella Borgiotti. It was an absolute team effort where we came in hungry for more, and it showed. Proud is an understatement, and I'm still so excited to know we are not done yet."
NOTABLES
- With the win, the Bulldogs claimed the seventh seed in the CUSA Tournament.
- Benjamin's set a new career high with 11 kills. She also added seven digs.
- Grace Krohn finished with 18 assists, the 16th time this season she finished with 10+ assists.
- Lauren Albrecht and Krohn had 10+ assists in the same match for the 16th time this season.
- Tech committed only 11 errors in the match for the second day in a row, tying the season low.
- Hurley finished the series with 20 kills on 32 attempts and just one error, a .594 hitting clip. She added seven blocks and four digs.
UP NEXT
The Bulldogs qualified for the Conference USA tournament as the seventh seed and will take on the second seed, which will be determined after the weekend action. LA Tech will play on Friday, Nov 17, at 3 p.m. CT. The Tournament is set to be streamed live on ESPN+.
SOCIAL MEDIA
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