LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - A strong effort by the ULM volleyball
team fell short in a back-and-forth battle with Sun Belt Conference foe UALR
Friday evening to lose in heartbreaking fashion 3-2 (25-18, 22-25, 25-16,
21-25, 13-15) on the road in The Jack Stephens Center.
Zuzana Markova continues to rack-up the triple-doubles this season
with 16 kills, 23 assists and 12 digs to bring her total to 12. Meghan McCoy
earned her 11th double-double this year with a team-best 26 assists
and 17 digs.
Samantha Morse led the offense with 18 kills and Blanca
Ocana collected 14 while also stuffing a career-best four solo blocks, totaling
six for the evening. Marcela Urbina had a match-best 25 digs while Tetiana
Sukach also contributed 16.
Edina Begic led the Trojans with 26 kills and 18 digs for a
double-double while Marleen de Zoete also picked up a double-double with 44
assists and 13 digs. Paige Gantar and Eva Xie had 12 and 11 kills, respectively,
and Emily Pepperman led the defense with 17 digs.
The deciding fifth game was forced after trading set wins
with UALR (10-15, 5-6 SBC), and the Warhawks (9-12, 3-8 SBC) grabbed an early 5-1 lead with kills by Markova,
Ocana and Dilonga. The Trojans responded
with a 5-1 run of their own to even the score 6-6, and two more ties ensued
until back-to-back errors gave ULM a 10-8 advantage. A 5-3 streak by UALR knotted
the score again 13-13 when a kill by Begic and an attack error ended the match
in the Trojans' favor 15-13.
Both teams exchanged leads three times to begin the first
set when ULM took advantage of multiple attack errors by UALR to string
together five-consecutive points and nearly double its lead 15-8. The Warhawks
maintained the advantage for the remainder of the game by trading points with
the Trojans to win 25-18.
The entire second set stayed extremely close with neither
team gaining more than a two-point advantage amongst 13 ties and six lead
changes. With the score knotted at 21-21 UALR put together back-to-back kills
and an attack error to take the biggest advantage of the set 24-21, and ULM had
one more kill from Ocana before the Trojans ended the set with a kill 25-22.
With the score knotted 9-9 in the third set, kills by
Markova, Ocana and Lacey Dietlin fueled a five-point spree and gave the
Warhawks a 14-9 advantage. After an even 3-3 run ULM put together another
five-consecutive points for a commanding 22-12 lead. The Warhawks sealed the
set with back-to-back kills by Morse and a Trojan attack error to win 25-16.
The fourth set was nearly identical to the second set with
another intense battle involving 16 ties and five lead changes. Both ULM and
UALR could not gain more than a two-point lead until the 20-20 mark when a kill
by Block sparked a four-point spree for the Trojans. An Ocana kill held off
game point once before a service error tied up the match with UALR winning the
set 25-21.
The Warhawks play their final road match of the season
Sunday when they face Arkansas State at 1 p.m. in Jonesboro, Ark.
