University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Cajuns Swept By UALR and Southern Miss
9/20/2003 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Saturday, Sept. 20, 2003
HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns volleyball team had its streak of seasons with an in-season tournament championship snapped here Saturday suffering straight set losses to both Arkansas-Little Rock and Southern Mississippi on the final day of play at the Forrest General SportsCare Volleyball classic hosted by USM.
In a matchup of Sun Belt Conference foes UALR swept the Cajuns 3-0 (30-22, 30-27, 30-28) and USM dealt the Cajuns their second straight loss in straight sets as the Golden Eagles topped UL Lafayette 3-0 (30-26, 30-18, 30-16) in the tournament finale.
As a result, Louisiana-Lafayette (4-9) concluded the tournament with a 1-2 record and a third-place finish. It marked the first time since the 1999 season that a Cajuns squad failed to win at least one in-season tournament. The Cajuns ended the season with a 4-8 record in four in-season tournaments.
Senior Beth Henson was named to the All-Tournament team marking the third straight weekend she was the Cajuns recipient of all-tourney honors.
Against UALR (8-4), Henson led the Cajuns in kills with 16. Stacy Liverett and Lesley Tough each added eight kills while Hollie Girouard paced the defense with 12 digs.
As a team UL Lafayette had an attack percentage of .210 to follow up Friday's season-high .463 clip. It marked the first time this season that the Cajuns had attacked above .200 in back-to-back matches.
The Trojans were able to escape with the win via Cajun errors. UL Lafayette committed 23 attack errors to just eight for UALR. The Trojans ended the match with a .383 attack percentage and hit above .200 in all three games of the match.
Ivana Vracar led UALR with 19 kills. Larisa Durmisevic had a double-double recording 15 kills and 10 digs and Ivana Kuzmic led all players with six blocks.
The match does not count in the Sun Belt standings.
In the finale host-USM had three players tally double-digit kills to go along with 10 service aces and seven blocks as the Golden Eagles (13-2) swept the Cajuns to claim the tournament championship.
UL Lafayette was led by Tough's nine kills. Unlike USM, the Cajuns did not have any players with double-digit kills and struggled with a .111 attack percentage compared to USM's .381.
USM out-killed the Cajuns 51-32, had more assists 44-26 and out-dug them 49-45. Andrea Bush led all Golden Eagles with 13 kills and 14 digs. Bridget Files had a team-best five blocks.
This weekend's matches ended the Cajuns season-long 10-match road trip. The Cajuns concluded the trek with a 2-8 mark.
Louisiana-Lafayette returns home next weekend as Sun Belt Conference play begins Friday, Sept. 26 against three-time defending champion Western Kentucky at Earl K. Long Gym. The 7 p.m. match with WKU begins a four-match homestand for the Cajuns.
MATCH SUMMARIES
Arkansas-Little Rock vs.
Louisiana-Lafayette
Site: Payne Center (Hattiesburg, Miss.)
Date: Saturday, Sept. 20, 2003
Att: 85 Time: 1:20
Arkansas-Little Rock 3, Louisiana-Lafayette 0
1 2 3
UALR (8-4)
30 30 30
UL Lafayette (4-8) 22 27 28
Arkansas-Little Rock (8-4) (Kills-aces-blocks) - VRACAR, Ivana 19-3-2; DURMISEVIC, Larisa 15-1-1; KUZMIC, Ivana 8-1-6; ADZIC, Iva 5-0-2; SALIS, Randi 1-0-0; ETTER, Kristin 1-2-1; Totals 49-7-7.0. (Assists) - ADZIC 21; HURGA 20. (Dig leaders) - DURMISEVIC 10; HURGA 9; VRACAR 9
Louisiana-Lafayette (4-8) (Kills-aces-blocks) - Henson, Beth 16-0-0; Liverett, Stacy 8-0-1; Tough, Lesley 8-1-0; Salomaki, Elina 6-1-0; Webre, Hope 4-0-1; Pattison, Jessica 2-0-0; Harvey, Tami 2-1-0; Girouard, Hollie 2-0-0; Rodgers, Kim 1-0-0; Bermes, Lindsey 0-3-0; Totals 49-6-1.0. (Assists) - Henson 22; Harvey 17. (Dig leaders) - Girouard 12; Tough 10
Louisiana-Lafayette at Southern
Mississippi
Site: Payne Center (Hattiesburg, Miss.)
Date: Saturday, Sept. 20, 2003
Att: 203 Time: 1:20
Southern Mississippi 3, Louisiana-Lafayette 0
1 2 3
UL Lafayette (4-9)
26 18 16
Southern Miss (13-2) 30 30 30
Louisiana-Lafayette (4-9) (Kills-aces-blocks) - Tough, Lesley 9-1-0; Liverett, Stacy 7-0-3; Webre, Hope 5-0-1; Salomaki, Elina 4-0-0; Bermes, Lindsey 3-1-1; Henson, Beth 2-1-0; Pattison, Jessica 2-0-1; Totals 32-3-4.0. (Assists) - Henson 22. (Dig leaders) - Girouard 14; Tough 9
Southern Mississippi (13-2) (Kills-aces-blocks) - BUSH, Andrea 13-1-1; FILES, Bridget 12-3-5; TRIBBLE, Nicki 11-3-3; STEPHENS, Jazzmien 9-2-1; ROBERTSON, Leslie 4-0-1; TRUONG, Amy 2-1-2; Totals 51-10-7.0. (Assists) - TRUONG 36. (Dig leaders) - BUSH 14; TRUONG 10
-Ragin' Cajuns-
