PINEVILLE, La. – The Louisiana Christian University volleyball team was finally able to come home for the first time in the 2025 season, but dropped a straight sets - 25-11, 25-20, 25-11 - result to the Our Lady of the Lake Saints Friday night at H.O. West Fieldhouse.
 
The match also served as the Red River Athletic Conference opener for the Wildcats (2-9, 0-1 RRAC) while OLLU (5-6, 3-0 RRAC) is starting its second weekend of conference play.
 
Jakaira Jimcoily led the offense with five kills and a .273 attack percentage while getting in on four blocks to give her seven total points.
 
Holly Rowe added four kills and had LCU's lone service ace of the evening while getting in on a pair of blocks for six total points.
 
Jasmia Hartwell, Mallory Wills, and Jakayla Jimcoily each had two kills with Hartwell and Jimcoily also getting in on a block.
 
The start of the match was going as Louisiana Christian had hoped. An attack error by the Saints put the Wildcats on the board first, and then a kill by Hartwell gave LCU a 2-0 lead.
 
OLLU tied the score up, only to see the Saints commit another pair of attack errors to reestablish a two-point lead for the Wildcats at 4-2.
 
The Saints rallied to take their first lead of the game, only for LCU to retake the lead on an OLLU service error and a block by Jakaira Jimcoily and Rowe, putting the Wildcats up 6-5. Jakaira Jimcoily again gave the Wildcats the lead at 7-6 with a kill, but that would be LCU's final lead of the set.
 
With the score tied at 8-8, the Saints went on a set-ending run by scoring 17 of the final 20 points of the first set to claim a 25-11 win, giving OLLU a 1-0 lead in the match.
 
LCU was again the first team to score in the second set as Rowe put down another kill to go up 1-0. After some back and forth over the next few points, the Wildcats went back in front on Rowe's service ace, giving LCU a 7-6 lead.
 
With LCU leading 8-7, OLLU went on a 16-9 push to slowly pull away, opening up a 23-17 lead. But the Wildcats did not go quietly. A ball-handling error by the Saints start started a bit of a LCU push as Jakaira Jimcoily followed the miscue with a kill and then the Jimcoily twins combined on a block to cut the deficit down to 23-20, forcing an OLLU timeout.
 
But back-to-back attack errors by the Wildcats followed the timeout, giving the Saints the 25-20 set two win and a 2-0 lead in the match.
 
OLLU jumped on LCU early to start the third set, scoring the first five points.
 
But LCU battled back, scoring five of the next six, including the last four in a row to put that deficit down to just one point at 6-5 off of a block by Rowe and Jakaira Jimcoily.
 
However, the Saints scored the next five points and pulled away from there, outscoring the Wildcats 19-6 to close out the set at 25-11 and finishing the match with a 3-0 score.
 
LCU finished the match with 16 kills but committed 18 attack errors on 81 total attacks. The Wildcats had one ace and blocked back four Saints attacks for points. Our Lady of the Lake had 38 kills and 14 errors on 92 total attacks. The Saints also scored on 12 service aces and blocked back nine Wildcat attacks.
 
The Wildcats and Saints will do it again on Saturday inside H.O. West Fieldhouse with opening serve set for 12 p.m. to wrap up the RRAC weekend series. LCU closes out the weekend with a match against Dillard later in the afternoon. Opening serve against the Bleu Devils (8-6, 5-1 HBCUAC) is set for 2 p.m., also inside H.O. West Fieldhouse.