LAFAYETTE, La. - The ULM volleyball team rallied from a one-set deficit to earn a highly-anticipated Sun Belt Conference win over in-state rival UL-Lafayette 3-1 (22-25, 25-20, 25-21, 25-18) on the road Tuesday evening in Earl K. Long Gym. The Cajuns had won six straight and 14 of 16 at home prior to the Warhawks victory.
"I feel like this is the best match we've played since we started this new team at ULM, even from last season," ULM head coach Ernest Vasquez said. "It was an all-around effort from the seniors down to the freshmen, new players to returners and everyone in between. Everyone played well and it shows in the stats. This has been a long time coming and it started with the hard work the girls did with the previous coach, which you can see in the seniors this year."
It is ULM's first Sun Belt Conference win since 2006 when the Warhawks also defeated ULL by a score of 3-1 on Oct. 9. The victory Tuesday night snapped an 83-match conference losing streak and pushed the Warhawks record to 7-6 overall and 1-2 in league play this season.
"I couldn't be happier," Vasquez said. "For the girls to finally get this win after working so hard, means more to me than anything. It's the best feeling in the whole world."
Zuzana Markova, who picked up her eighth triple-double of the season and third-straight, led a total team effort in the victory. Markova finished the match with 12 kills, 19 assists and 12 digs. Blanca Ocana had a match-high 14 kills to lead the offense and Mahogany Dilonga tied her career-high with 13 kills while attacking at a .522 clip. Dilonga also came up big defensively for the Warhawks with a match-best seven blocks, including one solo.
Meghan McCoy picked up her sixth double-double this season with a match-high 28 assists and 12 digs while Marcela Urbina collected a ULM-best 18 digs. Tetiana Sukach was also key defensively with a career-best 15 digs.
Lesley Mirachi and Mandi Gavin were the lone Ragin' Cajuns to reach double-digits in kills collecting 12 and 11, respectively. Andrea Hole had a team-high 27 assists and a match-high 20 digs for UL-Lafayette's only double-double of the evening while Caitlin Auxilien had 16 digs. The Ragin' Cajuns (8-11, 0-3 SBC) nearly doubled ULM in attack errors with 31 compared to 18, and the Warhawks held them to just a .071 attack percentage as a team while firing at a .236 rate.
ULM fell back early in the first set as the Ragin' Cajuns used a five-point streak to grab an early 6-2 advantage. ULL slowly continued to pull away with a 10-6 run to double the score 16-8. After a Warhawk timeout, Markova and Dilonga smashed back-to-back kills to spark an 8-4 spree and pull ULM within four points, 20-16, but a final 6-5 run in favor of ULM was not enough as UL-Lafayette took the first set 25-22.
A nearly identical start occurred in the second set, this time the Warhawks took a 6-3 lead fueled by four-consecutive points before two errors and an Ocana kill tripled their advantage to 9-3. The teams split the next 20 points to make the score 19-13 as ULM limited UL-Lafayette to just two consecutive points at any point during the entire set. The Ragin' Cajuns fought to within three points, 23-20, until back-to-back kills by Ocana ended the game 25-20.
ULM used kills by Markova and Morse and a service error to take a 7-4 lead in the third set before UL-Lafayette answered with a 4-1 run to knot the score 8-8. Three ties followed until the Warhawks rode a 5-1 streak capped by back-to-back kills by Dilonga and Ocana to take a 16-12 lead. The teams split the final 18 points leading to a 25-21 ULM win and a one-set advantage.
The closest fight of the entire match emerged in the fourth set. The early portion of the game featured 11 ties and just three lead changes before ULM forced three Ragin' Cajun errors and used a kill by Ocana to grab the biggest lead of the set, 17-13. Markova blasted back-to-back kills to seal the 25-18 set and match victory.
ULM returns home for its first home matches in nearly a
month when it plays North Texas Friday at 6 p.m. followed by Denver Saturday at
6 p.m. in the ULM Activity Center.
