Volleyball Faces Northwestern State in Home Opener

LAFAYETTE – Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns Volleyball makes its 2016 debut at Earl K. Long Gym on Tuesday hosting Northwestern State in a 6:30 p.m. match.

The NSU match marks the start of a five-match homestand for the Ragin' Cajuns (0-3) on UL Lafayette's main campus that also includes the Sawyer Camillo Memorial Classic (Sept. 2-3) and a midweek contest with McNeese State (Sept. 6).

The Ragin' Cajuns opened the ninth season of head coach Heather Mazeitis-Fontenot's tenure last weekend at the Marriott Houston Westchase Classic hosted by Houston Baptist. The squad came up in short in all three contests, but was involved in close battles as there were a combined 104 ties and 42 lead changes over 13 sets contested.

Junior outside hitter Stacey Reilly, who averaged 4.08 kills per set, and senior middle blocker Chanelle Gardner, who posted a Sun Belt Conference-best .397 hitting percentage, led the Ragin' Cajuns offense.

Setter Jessica Bartczyszyn handed out 134 assists, a total which topped all Sun Belt setters on opening weekend. Bartczyszyn recorded a career-high 53 assists in the weekend finale vs. Weber State, guiding the offense to 60 points over four sets.

Entering Tuesday's match, Gardner needs two blocks to become only the second Ragin' Cajun to reach 300 career blocks since the rally scoring era began in 2001.

The homestand presents head coach Heather Mazeitis-Fontenot the opportunity to reach a personal milestone. She stands three wins shy of taking sole possession of second place on the program's all-time victories list.

Louisiana and Northwestern State are meeting for the third straight season. The Demons rallied for a 3-2 (25-22, 20-25, 18-25, 25-12, 15-9) win at Prather Coliseum in Natchitoches on Sept. 1, 2015. The Ragin' Cajuns claimed the last matchup at Earl K. Long Gym, taking the finale of the 2014 Sawyer Camillo Memorial Classic in four sets.

Coach Mazeitis-Fontenot's Thoughts:
"If you dive into the stats you can see we're going to be a good team. Offensively we were in the top five of nearly every offensive category in the Sun Belt this past weekend.

Offensively we are spot on…defensively we need to get our act together – that's what this past weekend proved to us.

We can definitely generate points, now we just need to get the other side of the ball going and I am confident we can do that. Some of it is miscommunication, some is not reading what's coming at you quickly enough and our blocking schemes might be a bit too complicated for where we are in the season right now so we might need to get back to the basics in strategy.

Offensively this team is better than my 2014 team, and that's saying a lot. Defensively if we can just get that side of the ball steadied then we'll be fine.

We're looking forward to this homestand. The girls are excited to show everyone what we've been doing. We have so many local kids and our crowds are so great. The product that we are going to put on the floor is exciting.

Hopefully we can get on the plus side of the win column while we're here at home to start the following week off on a different foot."

UP NEXT
The Ragin' Cajuns welcome Air Force, Alabama A&M and Nicholls State for the Sawyer Camillo Memorial Classic set for Friday-Saturday, Sept. 2-3 at Earl K. Long Gym. Tournament action begins at 1:30 p.m. on Friday.

Louisiana's tournament opener is Friday at 6:30 p.m. vs. Air Force. The squad's Saturday matchups are against Alabama A&M at 10 a.m. and Nicholls State at 3 p.m.

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Players Mentioned

Jessica Bartczyszyn

Chanelle Gardner

Stacey Reilly