JACKSONVILLE, Ala. – The University of Louisiana Monroe volleyball team lost in straight sets to tournament-host Jacksonville State, 3-0 (25-14, 25-21, 25-22), Saturday, Sept. 9 in the championship match of the Jefferson's/State Farm Invitational. The were 23 ties and 10 lead changes in the tournament finale.
The Warhawks (3-9) had opened tournament play with straight-set victories over Mississippi Valley, Alcorn State and North Carolina A&T.
"We didn't play bad (against Jacksonville State)," ULM head coach
Patrick Hiltz said. "We just didn't make enough plays to win. It was our defense that let us down. We have to start making more digs. Our block was good tonight, and we forced them to hit around us. When they do that, we absolutely must make digs behind the block, and we aren't anywhere close to making enough digs right now. Opponents are hitting extremely high percentages against us. We have to slow down the sideout game of our opponents or we will continue to struggle. We want to be aggressive servers, but 12 missed serves in three sets is ridiculous.
"We have to play smarter. The plays that we needed tonight, we didn't get mostly due to poor decisions as the play progressed. Repetitions in practice and lots of film study will help.
Unfortunately, we only have one practice before we play again, so we will just pick one or two areas and focus there before Tuesday's match."
ULM placed two players on the All-Tournament Team, including sophomore
Mikaela Worley and senior
Kalena Caruthers.
Worley hit a match-best .407 (14-3-27) against Jacksonville State while recording a season-high 14 kills to go along with seven digs. Caruthers (6) and senior
Jennifer McClendon (7) combined for 13 kills. Senior
Taylor Wood had a team-high 21 assists, while senior
Kacey LeBlanc was credited with a team-best 11 digs.
"Mikaela (Worley) is really starting to become a consistent go to player for us," Hiltz said. "We also got some help from our opposite position, in
Kalena Caruthers. It was nice to see her start to find herself again."
Jacksonville State freshman Madison Cooler earned Tournament MVP honors after producing a career-best 10 kills to go along with eight digs and two service aces. Two Gamecocks hit better than .300 in the title match, including sophomore Kaylee Frear .364 (6-2-11) and senior Charis Ludtke .304 (9-2-23). Ludtke also earned a spot on the All-Tournament Team.
The Warhawks led 7-6 in the first set, but the Gamecocks went on a 7-1 run to build a 13-8 lead en route to a 25-14 win. Jacksonville State hit .381 (10-2-21) in an opening frame that featured four ties and four lead changes.
Both teams hit better than .300 in the second frame that included nine ties and four lead changes. JSU hit .353 (15-3-34) while ULM hit .325 (17-4-40). Worley accounted for six of ULM's 17 kills in the second set. ULM jumped out to an 11-7 lead and held a 21-20 advantage before the Gamecocks closed out the second set by scoring the last five points for a 25-21 win. Ludtke recorded two service aces while Cooler and senior Allyson Zuhlke each provided kills during JSU's 5-0 run.
"For us to have 17 of our 21 points in the second set come off kills by us, just shows how potent our offense can be when we are clicking," Hiltz said. "How we lost the set is a bit of a mystery, but my guess is that we made our errors at the most inopportune moments. It's tough to swallow a loss when your offense is executing at that high of a level."
The Warhawks led 22-21 in the third set, but JSU scored the final four points for a 25-22 win. With its tournament championship, the Gamecocks improved to 10-3 on the season.
ULM returns to action on Tuesday, Sept. 12 with a 6 p.m. CT home match against Northwestern State.
