Volleyball: Ragin’™ Cajuns Tough it Out to Finish Doubleheader Sweep in Arlington

Louisiana Volleyball extends its road win streak and locks up the No. 2 seed in the Sun Belt West

ARLINGTON, Texas – Behind a season-high 18 blocks the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns Volleyball team was able to win the battle in a defensive slugfest with UT Arlington posting a 3-1 (26-28, 25-17, 25-20, 26-24) win Friday evening at the College Park Center.
 
Louisiana (17-4, 11-4 Sun Belt) threw up eight blocks alone in the second set to avoid a two-set deficit. The squad then found enough offense over the final two frames, scoring 31 kills on a .213 hitting percentage after hovering around the break-even mark for the majority of the grinders in the first two sets.
 
With the win over the Mavericks (8-5, 8-5 Sun Belt) the Ragin’ Cajuns secured the No. 2 seed from the Sun Belt’s West Division for the upcoming conference tournament Nov. 18-22 in Foley, Ala.
 
It was the 12th consecutive road win for Louisiana dating back to the 2019 season. When added to the reverse sweep collected earlier in the day Friday, it completed a doubleheader sweep of UT Arlington to start the weekend series.
 
It was the block that denied UTA a chance to grab a two-set lead after the hosts had bounced back to claim a 16-14 lead in the second set. The Ragin’ Cajuns posted four blocks, starting with solo stuffs from Kara Barnes and Lauren Tishkoff, during a set-ending 10-1 run which evened the match.
 
Louisiana found the floor for 15 kills on a .244 hitting percentage to capture the third set and break the tie. Avery Breaux delivered a pair of key dump kills during a 5-0 sprint that opened up a 16-11 advantage, then later when the Mavericks closed the gap to 22-19 Barnes turned away an attack attempt to keep the hosts at arm’s length.
 
The Ragin’ Cajuns won the race to the finish line with a 16-10 edge in kills in the final set. It was Kelsey Bennett leading the charge to finishing off the Mavericks as the first of her five kills down the stretch knotted the score at 15-all, then her final two tallies of the night broke a 24-all stalemate.
 
LEADING THE RAGIN’ CAJUNS
Bennett generated a match-high 17 kills, scoring at least four kills in each set Louisiana won. The performance followed up her career-high 20 kills in Friday’s opener and increased her total for the day to 37 kills.
 
She was supported by 10 kills from Hali Wisnoskie, nine kills from Barnes, eight kills by Tishkoff and seven kills from Cami Hicks.
 
Wisnoskie’s first kill of the contest marked the 1,300th of her collegiate career. She became the only the third player in program history to reach the mark, joining Nia Kiggundu (1993-96) and Janaina Gomes (1998-2001).
 
Five different Ragin’ Cajuns had a hand in multiple blocks led by a career-high eight blocks (5 BS, 3 BA) from Barnes. Tishkoff set her season-high with six blocks and Hicks tied her personal-best with five blocks.
 
Libero Hannah Ramirez matched her digs total from the series opener by totaling 29 digs for her 33rd consecutive match in double figures. Milayne Danna joined her in reaching 20 digs, setting her season-high figure by totaling the exact amount. The duo’s efforts helped the Ragin’ Cajuns out-dig the Mavericks 99-93.
 
Avery Breaux picked up her second double-double of the day, and 10th overall this season, as she passed out 39 assists and rounded up 13 digs.
 
UP NEXT
Louisiana concludes its regular season and wraps up the weekend series in Arlington on Saturday with a 1 p.m. matinee at the College Park Center against UT Arlington.
 
The match can be seen live on ESPN� and live stats will be available at CajunStats.com.
 
FOLLOW THE RAGIN’ CAJUNS
Follow the Ragin’ Cajuns on Twitter (@RaginCajunsVB), Facebook (/RaginCajunsVB) or Instagram (@RaginCajunsVB) to stay up-to-date on all that is happening with Louisiana Volleyball.  

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Ragin’ Cajuns vault past UT Arlington into second place in Sun Belt West Division standings

ARLINGTON, Texas – Sparked by the outside hitter combination of Hali Wisnoskie and Kelsey Bennett who together combined for 44 kills the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns Volleyball team pulled off a reverse sweep to claim an all-important 3-2 (24-26, 19-25, 25-19, 25-22, 15-10) win over UT Arlington on Friday at the College Park Center.
 
Wisnoskie was the key catalyst for Louisiana (16-4, 10-4 Sun Belt) in overcoming a 2-0 match deficit as she poured in 16 of her match-leading 24 kills over the final three frames. Those efforts led to the Ragin’ Cajuns overpowering the Mavericks (8-4, 8-4 Sun Belt) with 44 kills on a .285 hitting percentage during the comeback.
 
An 8-0 run which built a 10-4 advantage in the third set put Louisiana on the road to extending the match. UTA crawled back and cut the deficit to 21-19, but Bennett scored a kill for a key sideout and Wisnoskie clinched the set with back-to-back kills.
 
The Ragin’ Cajuns erased an 18-14 deficit in the fourth set with Wisnoskie netting a kill to forge a 20-all tie and kick off the final push. An Avery Breaux ace gave Louisiana the lead for good and later it was Wisnoskie’s sixth and seventh kills of the frame that captured the winning points.
 
The decisive fifth hung in the balance with six ties, the last coming at 6-6 before a Mavericks service error opened a door that Wisnoskie slammed shut. On each of the next three rallies the Ragin’ Cajuns senior outside hitter produced a kill to open a 10-6 lead that proved to be insurmountable.
 
With the win Louisiana secured double-digit wins in Sun Belt Conference play for the second straight season, the first-ever occurrence in program history.
 
It was the Ragin’ Cajuns 11th consecutive regular season road victory dating back to last season and moved the squad within one win of clinching the tiebreaker for the No. 2 seed out of the Sun Belt’s West Division.
 
LEADING THE RAGIN’ CAJUNS
Wisnoskie landed her 24 kills on a .377 hitting percentage and added 15 digs for her fifth double-double of the season. She scored five kills off of nine error-free swings in the winner-take-all fifth stanza.
 
Bennett scored a career-high 20 kills off a match-high 65 attack attempts. The production pushed the junior outside hitter’s career kills tally past the 500-mark (now at 508). She added 16 digs to her stat line marking her team-leading ninth double-double.
 
Louisiana out-dug UTA 109-103 with Hannah Ramirez’s 29 digs leading the way and Avery Breaux’s 22 digs closely following. For Ramirez it was her 32nd consecutive match with double-digit digs, a streak which dates back to last Oct. 11.
 
Kara Barnes and Lauren Tishkoff each supplied 10 kills. Tishkoff joined Breaux and Cami Hicks in leading the team with two blocks.
 
Breaux passed out 56 assists as she recorded 50-plus in a match for the fourth time this season. The senior setter averaged 10-plus assists per set for the 17th time in 20 outings.
 
UP NEXT
The Ragin’ Cajuns and Mavericks return to the court at the College Park Center in Arlington at 6 p.m. on Friday to continue the three-match series. The match can be seen live on ESPN? and live stats will be available at CajunStats.com.
 
FOLLOW THE RAGIN’ CAJUNS
Follow the Ragin’ Cajuns on Twitter (@RaginCajunsVB), Facebook (/RaginCajunsVB) or Instagram (@RaginCajunsVB) to stay up-to-date on all that is happening with Louisiana Volleyball.