Volleyball: Antoine Named Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Week

LAFAYETTE – Nia Antoine, who averaged four-plus kills per set and totaled 30 kills during the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns volleyball team’s trip to Coastal Carolina and Appalachian State last weekend, has been named the Sun Belt Conference’s Offensive Player of the Week.

 
Antoine led the Ragin’ Cajuns with 12 kills on Friday at Coastal Carolina and followed up with a career-high 18 kills at Appalachian State on Sunday.
 
The sophomore middle blocker hit .414 through 58 total swings, committing only six errors. She produced double digit kills and averaged four or more kills per set in both matches.
 
In Sunday’s match in Boone, N.C., Antoine had at least four kills in each set and generated nine on 12 attempts through the first two frames as Louisiana marched out to a 2-0 match lead over App State. It was Antoine who broke the final tie of the match with a kill in the fourth set that provided the Ragin’ Cajuns the lead for good at 5-4, leading to the program’s first win in Boone and a key triumph in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament picture.
 
"Nia was on net patrol…any overpasses, or odd looks coming across the net, she was scoring," Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns Volleyball head coach Heather Mazeitis-Fontenot said. "She was on top of her game, taking cuts like I’ve never seen and doing things we’ve never seen her do.
 
"It was really fun to see," Mazeitis-Fontenot added. "She’s always been super-fast and a flyer – which is why we recruited her – but we saw her take a big step forward this weekend to becoming a high IQ volleyball player."
 
It’s the first career Sun Belt honor for Antoine, a product of Lafayette-based Acadiana High School.

She is the first Ragin’ Cajun to win a SBC weekly award since Andrea Hole took home Setter of the Week honors twice in 2014 and the first on offense since Lesley Mirarchi in Sept. 2010.
 
Antoine carries a string of three consecutive matches reaching double digit kills as the Ragin’ Cajuns (8-16, 4-5 Sun Belt) close out their current four-match road trip this weekend in Texas. Louisiana will be in San Marcos on Friday to face Texas State, then will travel north on I-35 to meet UT Arlington on Saturday. Both matches begin at 6:30 p.m.