NACOGDOCHES, Texas – ULM volleyball dropped its fourth straight match on Tuesday (Sept. 4) in a mid-week match-up with Southland member Stephen F. Austin. The Warhawks (2-5) showed tenacity and out-attacked the Ladyjacks (5-2), but fell in three sets (25-21, 25-12, 25-20).
 
"The things we did well tonight don't really show up on the stat sheet or scoreboard," head coach Russ Friedland said. "We had some people step-up and step-in and play some big roles tonight and we fought hard against a sound SFA team."
 
The Warhawks took their only lead in the third set, when they looked to have found their groove, scoring the first point of the match and leading the Ladyjacks up until back-to-back attack errors by ULM tied the game at 10-10. The Warhawks would never see the lead again.
 
ULM struggled with error calls tonight, giving up 35 points in errors, 26 of which came on Warhawk attacks. Errors aside, ULM saw improvement across the roster from its sweep at the Redhawk Invitational last weekend.
 
Freshman Kate Blasingame and senior Tara Jenkins both finished with double-doubles in the loss. Blasingame with 12 kills and 11 digs and 15 assists and 11 digs for Jenkins. Albany Schaffer led the Warhawks with 13 digs, tying the high for all players as well.
 
"Kate had a good showing tonight with her second double-double and Albany was really steady in the libero role. Tara earned her first double-double of the season and provided some key assists and digs for us as well," said Friedland.
 
Nine total Warhawks contributed kills against the Ladyjacks, but of those ten or more attacks, only two finished with positive percentages. Blasingame finished with a team high 37 attacks and a .162 percentage and senior Sarah Woods had 15 attacks and two errors for a .067 percentage.
 
SFA defeated ULM in all three sets with a hitting percentage of .163 or better each time.
 
"Alix, Presleigh, Lauren, and Cali did fantastic jobs in what they were asked to do. We got better over our short break between competition on Saturday and today. We will continue to grow and progress and we're excited to get back in the gym tomorrow and start preparing for our tournament in Memphis this weekend," Friedland said.
 
The Warhawks will have just a few more days of practice in Fant-Ewing before hitting the road for Memphis, Tennessee. ULM has only ten days until its home opener against Grambling, on Friday, Sept. 14 at 6:30 p.m. Follow the Warhawks on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at @ULM_VB to stay up to date on team happenings, schedule changes, live in-game updates, and much more.