ARLINGTON, Texas – The Louisiana Tech Volleyball team dropped a pair of close matches to the University of the Incarnate Word and UT Arlington on the final day of the UTA Classic.
  
LA Tech (2-4) could not get anything to go their way to start the match. After falling behind 8-3,
Sydney Jackwin made the first appearance of the season and gave the Bulldogs some energy. The University of the Incarnate Word (5-1) continued to be in the right spots at the right time and took the first set.
 
Jackwin and Ashley Taylor would start the second set with a block to give the Bulldogs an early lead, but the Cardinals would fight back and gain a 19-15 advantage. Lauren Albrecht would make an all-out dive and follow that with an assist to Taylor to catapult LA Tech to a 10-4 run to close out the set in their favor.
 
In the third set, the two teams traded 4-point runs to start the match, but UIW would finish the set with a 7-0 run to take a 2-1 advantage.
 
The fourth set saw multiple rallies that lasted well over a minute, with the teams trying to find holes in the other's defense. UIW would do enough to take the match 3-1 (25-16, 23-25, 25-14, 25-22).
 
LA Tech returned three hours later, trying to give UT Arlington (6-0) their first loss of the season.
 
Luisa Araujo would get a kill and block on back-to-back plays to pull the Bulldogs close. However, the Mustang trio of Jalie Tritt, Brianna Ford, and Briana Brown would be too much for the Bulldogs as they would take the first two sets by identical 25-17 scores.
 
UTA grew their third set lead to 15-10 at the media timeout with a 5-2 run. Out of that timeout, LA Tech used a 7-2 run of their own to tie the set, aided by a pair of kills from Carla Esquer. The set would have six ties and five lead changes before UTA used a four-point run at the end to gain the advantage and win the match 3-0 (25-17, 25-17, 25-22).

NOTABLES

• LA Tech drops to 0-2 all-time against UIW and 2-9 against UT Arlington. 
• Jackwin recorded a double-double in her first action of the season with 14 kills and 16 blocks against UIW.
• With 60 digs and eight blocks against UIW, the Bulldogs have hit that mark in four of their six matches.
• Lauren Albrecht recorded a double-double for the second day in a row with 12 assists and 10 digs against UTA.

UP NEXT
LA Tech will play inside the Thomas Assembly Center for the first time this season when they host the LA Tech Invitational. Little Rock, Grambling State, and Lamar will participate in the three-day event from Sept. 7-9.
 
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