THE BASICS
Score: ULM 2, UALR 3
(24-26, 22-25, 25-22, 28-26, 7-15)
Record: ULM (8-16, 2-4 SBC)
UALR (7-13, 3-4 SBC)
Location: Monroe, La. (Fant-Ewing Coliseum)
Monroe, La. – The ULM volleyball team comeback fell just short of taking the match with a 3-2 loss to Little Rock in Fant-Ewing Coliseum on Friday night.
HOW IT HAPPENED
-The Warhawks were off to a quick start with a 4-1 lead, but the Trojans came storming back. The teams went back-and-forth for a match-high 12 tie scores. However, with only three lead changes UALR was able to close out the set.
-Little Rock jumped out to a 7-2 lead right off the bat. Despite the Warhawks fight the team was unable to overturn the score as UALR jumped out into a 2-0 lead.
-As the Trojans looked to close out the match, ULM had other plans in mind. After a tie score of six ULM took the lead and continued to advance it to its first set win of the night.
-The teams kept the score tight in set four with nine tie scores and six lead changes. The teams bantered back and forth in the second half of the set that pushed the score past the normal 25. After a kill from Hope Pawlik, the Warhawks capitalized on a Trojan error to tie the set score at two.
-The teams hung tight at the beginning of the set until UALR was able to put together a couple of three point runs that slowly advanced them to the set and match win.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
-The match finished with 29 total tie scores and 12 lead changes. The highest total of tie scores came in set one and the highest total of lead changes came in set four with six.
-ULM recorded its highest hitting percentage in set four (.298).
-ULM posted its highest total of kills in a set in set four with 17 total kills.
-Hope Pawlik led the Warhawks with a double-double for a career-high 28 kills and career-high 23 digs. Mikaela Worley followed Pawlik with 12 kills of her own.
-Tara Jenkins also recorded a double-double with 55 assists and 12 digs on the night.
-Kacey LeBlanc led the defensive effort with an outstanding career-high 39 digs.
-Catherine Griffith held strong at the net and was the only Warhawk to notch a solo block in the match as well as adding six block assists for a career-high seven blocks. Ana Ribeiro followed right behind and contributed four block assists of her own.
FROM COACH HILTZ
About the match: I'm getting a little tired of talking about how well we play in our losses. But, I'm going to do it again. For four sets we battled and played exceptional volleyball. The fifth set Little Rock turned up their energy and effort and apparently that same switch they used to turn their energy on, turned ours off. We have to find the ability to keep the same mindset in a tough fifth set as we have the rest of the match. It's a maturity thing but at this point in the season there's no such thing as freshman or inexperienced players. Players need to trust themselves and their teammates and simply know. Know that they're good enough to win and deserve to win.
About the team: We had so many players with fantastic individual performances tonight but what I told the team is that in the end, the team lost. We needed perhaps one more person to step up and join the party and nobody did. In all honesty Hope should have broken the record tonight (for total number of kills in a match) but it wasn't meant to be. She was on fire all night and even threw in some defense to boot. I challenged her to do it again Sunday. Tara and Kacey were also chasing school records tonight and fell short. I can't say enough about the way those two handled their jobs tonight. Cat and Ana Ribeiro were solid all night and Kalena even came in and played a brand new position for us and played it pretty darn well. I'm proud of her performance tonight. It's nice when players are ready to do whatever is asked of them in order to help the team. Kalena is a great example of what it means to be a teammate.
Looking forward: Hopefully we can bring the same energy on Sunday that we showed tonight. We will need to play just as hard to try and pick up a win on this home-stand before we hit the road for a couple of weeks.
UP NEXT
The Warhawks will next take on Arkansas State in Fant-Ewing Coliseum on Sunday at 12:00 p.m.
