NEW ORLEANS - The Louisiana Christian University volleyball team rallied for a five-set victory over the Dillard Bleu Devils (17-25, 26-24, 14-25, 25-22, 15-10) before falling to the Loyola Wolf Pack in straight sets (25-19, 25-11, 25-16) Saturday at the Den to wrap up play in the Wolf Pack Welcome.
Louisiana Christian (1-3) had to respond twice in the opener after Dillard (1-2) won the first set and took a 2-1 match lead. The Wildcats navigated 12 ties in the second set, getting a kill from
Mallory Wills at 24-24 before
Kourtlyn Smith and
Kaliyah Cross combined on the set-ending block. Dillard answered with a 25-14 win in the third, but the Wildcats regained their rhythm in the fourth.
Natalie Aasen delivered three kills during a 7-0 run that broke a 9-9 tie and put Louisiana Christian ahead 16-9.
Dillard came back to tie the fourth set at 22, but the Wildcats took the final three points. Smith and Aasen supplied kills during that closing sequence to force the deciding set. Louisiana Christian built an early 5-2 advantage in the fifth before Dillard moved in front 8-7. After another tie at 9, Aasen recorded two kills in a four-point Wildcats run that created a 13-9 lead, then added the match-ending kill for a 15-10 victory.
Louisiana Christian's balanced attack and work at the net helped complete the comeback. Wills led the Wildcats with 10 kills and four block assists, while
Holly Rowe finished with nine kills and four block assists. Aasen contributed eight kills, 14 digs and three service aces, and @Smith hit .545 with six kills.
Emma Cother directed the offense with 22 assists, while
Kylie Elmore added 14 assists, three aces and seven digs.
Shanoa Mitch had 13 digs and three aces, and
Vivien Brouillette totaled six blocks. The Wildcats finished with 45 kills, 43 assists, 11 aces, 57 digs and 11 total blocks.
The win avenged the loss LCU suffered at the hands of Dillard a day before while also giving head coach
La'Coria Tademy her first win not just at LCU but as a collegiate head coach.
In the later match, Louisiana Christian opened with a 5-2 lead behind a Cother kill and remained ahead 11-10 after a Smith kill. Loyola (5-3) responded with four straight points, but the Wildcats stayed within reach and cut the margin to 20-18 on an Aasen kill and a Loyola attack error. Loyola closed the opening set on a 5-1 run, then used sustained scoring stretches to take the next two sets. Smith recorded consecutive kills during a three-point response in the second, and Cother supplied two early kills as the Wildcats opened the third with a 4-2 lead.
Cother paced Louisiana Christian against Loyola with 10 kills, no attack errors and a .476 hitting percentage on 21 attempts. Aasen added eight kills, Cother recorded 16 assists and nine digs, and Mitch collected 12 digs. Elmore contributed seven assists, six digs and the Wildcats' lone ace.
The Wildcats head to Wesson, Miss. on Tuesday for a pair of exhibition matches, starting with Southwest Mississippi Community College and ending the evening against Copiah-Lincoln Community College. LCU heads back to New Orleans on Friday for the Big Easy Blastoff, hosted by Xavier of Louisiana, taking on Dillard for a third time before battling the hosts, the Gold Nuggets.
