ULM Warhawks

ST. LOUIS -- ULM dropped a hard-fought 3-1 tilt to Saint Louis Saturday afternoon in their second match of the Marcia E. Hamilton Classic then wrapped up the tournament with a 3-0 loss at the hands of a tough Auburn squad.

Senior outside hitter Blanca Ocana collected a total of 19 kills while sophomore setter Katie Harrington dealt a total of 53 assists on the day.

The Warhawks (0-3) received an outstanding effort from Ocana, who recorded her 14th career double-double.  Ocana's 11 kills led the ULM attack.  She also tallied 10 digs.  Harrington established a new career high with 30 assists.  Redshirt junior middle blocker Iren Marinova and true junior Alannah Cullum also joined the career high club, hammering 10 and eight kills, respectively.

Senior middle blocker Maria Garcia lead the ULM net presence with four total blocks.

The Billikens (1-1) took the opening set 25-15 and stayed off a late Warhawks rally in the set.

Both squads traded blows through most of the second set. Down 20-19, ULM regrouped and took advantage of some SLU errors in addition to kills by Marinova and Garcia.  Garcia's final two kills of the set were enough to give the Warhawks the 25-22 win and even the match at 1-1 heading into the break.

Saint Louis came into the third set focused and took complete control early on.  The Billikens took a 2-1 lead in the match after taking the third stanza 25-13.

ULM would not go down quietly, however.  The Warhawks and Billikens once again had back-and-forth volleyball for the first few points.  Later on in the set, ULM began to string points together and drew to within three at 19-16, but the Saint Louis would outscore the Warhawks 6-2 to close out the final stanza.

"If we played the Saint Louis match again, I think we could have won.  We didn't execute as well as we should have except in game two.  In games one and three, we didn't pass as well and the scores reflected that," head coach Patrick Hiltz said.

Once again, Ocana led the Warhawk attack with nine kills while Harrington collected her first career double-double (23 assists, 10 digs).  Defensively, junior libero Marcela Araya led the match with 19 digs.

ULM went toe-to-toe with a 3-0 Auburn squad in the opening set.  The Tigers had a 20-15 lead before the Warhawks began to creep back into the set.  Cullum and Harrington both got into the scoring column with kills during the rally, but Auburn would go on to take the first frame 25-20.

"Our best match of the tournament was against Auburn.  Despite the big scores, there were no huge spurts. We would get a point, they would get two.  We would get two, they got four, but it wasn't like us getting one and them getting seven," Hiltz said.  "We passed extremely well against Auburn.  It was very encouraging to see improvement from the first match to the last match of the tournament."

In the middle stanza, the Tigers erupted to a 20-5 lead before the Warhawks once again tried to claw back. ULM outscored Auburn 10-5 over the last phase of the set, but it was not enough to silence the attack.

The final set once again saw the Warhawks and Tigers trading blows over the last several points, but Auburn had amassed a lead early and the comeback effort was silenced.  The Tigers took the final set 25-18 to complete the 3-0 sweep.  In the contest, freshman Celine Flores got her first collegiate action.  Her first serve was an ace.

"Auburn beat Nebraska earlier in the day and they were the class of the tournament.  I was thrilled to have our best match against them.  We were able to do what we were working on all pre-season against top-tier competition.

Araya made the all-tournament team with 52 total digs, an average of 5.20 per set. 

"Marcela got a lot of praise from the other coaches in the tournament.  She did everything I expected her to do as the full-time libero," Hiltz said.

ULM returns to action Monday, Sept. 2 against Stephen F. Austin.  First serve is at 2 p.m. in the ULM Activity Center. Admission is free.  For more updates on the ULM Volleyball team, follow them on Twitter.