University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Cajuns Let Early Leads Slip Away, NMSU Capitalizes With Sweep
11/7/2004 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Sunday, Nov. 7, 2004
LAFAYETTE – Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns volleyball team couldn't hold on to early leads in games one and two and as a result New Mexico State took a 3-0 (30-23, 30-25, 30-17) sweep here Sunday afternoon at Earl K. Long Gym.
Louisiana-Lafayette built a 6-1 lead in game one and held a 14-11 advantage in game two. Both times, NMSU capitalized on Ragin' Cajun mistakes to pull out the win and take an early 2-0 lead in the match.
The Cajuns (7-21, 3-10 Sun Belt) were victimized by service errors and reception errors which combined to give NMSU 22 points.
UL Lafayette lost the first two games of the match by a combined 12 points which included giving the Aggies 14 points off of serve and reception errors.
In game three, the Cajuns committed four service errors through the first 21 points. The first three errors cost the Cajuns a chance to tie the match. Trailing 5-4, 6-5, and 7-6, Louisiana-Lafayette committed three costly service errors which gave NMSU a two-point cushion instead of a tie score.
Louisiana-Lafayette closed to one point again at 8-7 and 9-8 before NMSU staged a 5-1 run to open a 14-9 lead and the Cajuns never got any closer than five points the rest of the way as the Aggies cruised to the 30-17 match-clinching victory.
Hope Webre tallied a team-best 10 kills for the Cajuns on just 21 attempts. Elina Salomaki tied for a match-high with 10 digs while putting down nine kills.
The Cajuns defense could only get 35 digs and played shorthanded as defensive specialist Courtney Zimmer missed the match with a shoulder injury.
NMSU (25-2, 13-0 Sun Belt) got a match-high 13 kills from senior Stevi Adams. Libero Briana Akrie and setter Jackie Choi both collected 10 digs. Tanya Allen and Kristin Hendricks each picked up a match-high four aces.
The Aggies finished the match with a .273 attack percentage and posted a .353 and .393 clip in the bookend games.
The loss was the Cajuns third straight overall and second straight at Long Gym. It also eliminated UL Lafayette from the 2004 Sun Belt Tournament.
The Aggies extend their current win streak to 14 and their Sun Belt win streak to 31 matches. NMSU completed the season sweep of the Ragin' Cajuns for the second straight season.
Louisiana-Lafayette will close out its 2004 regular season next weekend as the squad hosts North Texas at 7 p.m. on Friday and Middle Tennessee on Sunday at Noon.
MATCH SUMMARY
New Mexico State at Louisiana-Lafayette
Site: Lafayette, La. (Earl K. Long Gym)
Date: Nov 07, 2004 Attend: 203 Time: 1:16
New Mexico State 3,
Louisiana-Lafayette 0
1 2 3
New Mexico St. (25-2, 13-0 Sun Belt) 30 30 30
UL Lafayette (7-21, 3-10 Sun Belt)
23 25 17
New Mexico State (25-2, 13-0 Sun Belt) (Kills-aces-blocks) - Adams 13-2-2; Silagy 7-0-3; Borden 7-0-2; Allen 5-4-4; Oguh 5-0-2; Choi 4-1-0; Bostic 1-0-0; Hendricks 0-4-2; Akrie 0-1-0; Totals 42-12-8.0. (Assists) - Choi 34. (Dig leaders) - Choi 10; Akrie 10; Adams 9.
Louisiana-Lafayette (7-21, 3-10 Sun Belt) (Kills-aces-blocks) - Webre 10-0-4; Salomaki 9-0-0; Rodgers 8-1-4; Castro 6-0-1; Liverett 4-0-3; Aliaga 1-0-0; Girouard 0-2-0; Totals 38-3-7.0. (Assists) - Harvey 33. (Dig leaders) - Salomaki 10; Webre 8.
-- Ragin' Cajuns --
