RUSTON – The Louisiana Tech volleyball team fell to UTEP in straight sets (25-11, 25-15, 25-15) on Saturday afternoon in the Thomas Assembly Center.
 
LA Tech (6-14, 0-7) had no answers for one of the top teams in Conference USA, UTEP (17-2, 7-0). The Miners hit .402 and finished with 17 aces.
 
After a long rally, Jailen Hurley placed a tip just out of the reach of the blockers to give the Bulldogs the first point. After that, it was all UTEP the rest of the way in set one.
 
Tech scored the first point of the set again. The Bulldogs had increased the offensive output by hitting .267, but the Miners had .484 for the second set. Giulia Bonifacio had all four of her kills in the second set, and Gabrielle Hairston added three to lead the team.
 
The Bulldogs kept it close until a five-point run pushed the deficit to seven. Tech couldn't overcome the deficit and would drop the match.
 
Hurley had a team-high five kills, and Charlize Williams tied Bonifacio with four. Steubing had a game-high 13 digs.
 
Ema Uskokovic led UTEP with 10 kills and eight digs while being one of two Miners with three aces. 
 
QUOTABLES
Head coach Amber McCray
 
"UTEP is an excellent serving team who did a great job disrupting us early with their ability to both challenge the baseline and drop balls in front of us. Though I do believe we started handling that better as the match went on, our offense struggled to catch back up. On the flip side, we have to do a much better job of serving more aggressively to attempt to slow down their highly efficient offense. UTEP has solid attackers in all positions which is a huge reason they've been so successful over the past few years. However, we must serve tougher to limit their options, and then both our block and floor defense must step up to make 1-on-1 stops. I know our team has a lot more fight and grit than what we showed today so I'm thankful tomorrow gives us another chance to prove that."
 
NOTABLES

• Riley Steubing reached 300 digs in her career, 214 this season since taking over at Libero.
• Alex Singleton became the fourth Bulldog to wear the Libero jersey this season.
• Charlize Williams had four more blocks against the Miners. She has 10 games of 4+ blocks.
• Tech dropped to 7-20 all-time against UTEP.

 
UP NEXT
The series concludes on Sunday at noon on ESPN+.
 
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