Ruston – Needing a win to clinch a berth in the Conference USA Tournament, Louisiana Tech put together one of their best performances of the season to sweep Jacksonville State on Thursday night inside the Thomas Assembly Center for Senior Day. 
 
The teams started a back-and-forth battle early on, with neither team able to separate themselves. With things tied up at 11, Sa'Myah Medford gave Louisiana Tech (6-20, 1-13) a spark with back-to-back kills that would ignite a 14-4 run to close out the set.
 
Jacksonville State (5-19, 3-11) would not go away quietly. Tech would get out to a 9-6 lead, but three straight Gamecock kills followed by three Bulldog errors gave Jax State a 12-9 lead. 
 
Every time the bulldogs clawed their way back to even, the Gamecocks made a run of their own. Finally, with the Bulldogs down 22-21, Medford and Courtney Carter would get a huge block and allow the Bulldogs to get five of the final six points.
 
In the third set, Jacksonville State jumped out to a 6-3 lead early that was helped by two Bulldogs errors. However, the Bulldogs turned things around and reeled off seven straight for the 10-6 advantage.
 
Several mini runs by both teams would end up giving the Bulldogs the third set and the match (25-14, 26-24, 25-19)
 
Louisiana Tech had one of their highest hitting percentage of the year at .206. Jailen Hurley and Sydney Jackwin led the Bulldogs with nine kills each. Hurley finished with a .529 hitting clip while Jackwin added 13 digs. 

QUOTABLES
Head coach Amber McCray
 
"There are no words to describe this feeling tonight. I am so proud of the total team effort and fight our young team showed all throughout this match, even when we were down. We played well in all aspects of the game from our block and all the positive touches we were able to convert to kills, to the aggressive serving, setting distribution, and all out digs and pursuit plays we made to get his win. Our sideline was amazing and kept feeding the court energy all night long as well. Tonight we were playing for history, and tomorrow we're battling Jax State for a higher seed. We will enjoy this for a moment, but we know we need to flip the page swiftly to finish out our mission tomorrow."
 
NOTABLES

• With the win, the Bulldogs clinched a spot in the CUSA Tournament 
• Grace Krohn finished with 13 assists, the 15th time this season she finished with 10+ assists.
• Lauren Albrecht and Grace Krohn had 10+ assists in the same match for the 15th time this season.
• Tech committed only 11 errors in the match, tying a season-low.

 
UP NEXT
Louisiana Tech and Jacksonville State will close out the regular season with the seventh seed on the line Friday at 3 p.m. CT. The match is scheduled to be streamed live on ESPN+.
 
SOCIAL MEDIA
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