Volleyball: Antoine’s Career Day Leads to Win in Boone

BOONE, N.C. – Led by a career-high 18 kills from Nia Antoine, the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns volleyball team captured a 3-1 (25-23, 25-17, 15-25, 25-16) win over Appalachian State at the Holmes Center on Sunday.
 
The win was the first for the Ragin’ Cajuns (8-16, 4-5 Sun Belt) in Boone. It also gave the squad a 1-1 mark on the current four-match road trip that wraps up next weekend at Texas State (Oct. 28) and UT Arlington (Oct. 29).
 
Antoine, who had at least four kills in each set, generated nine on 12 attempts through the first two frames as Louisiana marched out to a 2-0 match lead.
 
App State (3-19, 1-8 Sun Belt) benefitted from nine Ragin’ Cajuns attack errors in the third set to avoid the sweep.
 
Louisiana stormed back with 15 kills on a .379 hitting percentage in the fourth set to assure that the task wouldn’t be left unfinished. It was Antoine who broke the final tie of the match with a kill that provided the Ragin’ Cajuns a 5-4 lead.
 
Antoine came through again when the Ragin’ Cajuns needed the final push to put the Mountaineers away. Leading 17-14, Antoine threw down her final kill of the afternoon for the first of three straight points that opened a 20-14 advantage.
 
Louisiana finished with a 52-45 edge in kills and saw five starters post at least five. Stacey Reilly joined Antoine in double figures with 11 kills, Chanelle Gardner had eight, Chloe Cordell contributed seven and Katherine Young landed five.
 
Antoine reached double digits in kills for the third straight match and fifth time in Sun Belt play. The Acadiana High product closed out the weekend on the East Coast with 30 kills over seven sets (4.29 kills/set) while hitting .414 over 58 attack attempts.
 
Reilly collected her 18th outing of the season with double digit kills. Gardner increased her career kills total to 948, leaving her six shy of surpassing Lesley Mirarchi as the program’s rally scoring era leader.
 
Hannah Henry matched her season-high digs total with a team-high 15. Reilly scooped 14 digs to collect her team-leading 14th double-double of the season.
 
The Mountaineers were led offensively by outside hitter Melissa McMath who tallied a team-high 14 kills while Kennedy Wilson led all players with 17 digs.