Volleyball: Cajuns Close Homestand With Sweep of Southern

LAFAYETTE – Four players produced at least nine kills guiding the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns volleyball team to its first sweep of the season, a 3-0 (25-14, 25-17, 25-16) win over Southern University Tuesday evening at Earl K. Long Gym.
 
Louisiana (3-5) hit .370 over the first two sets to open a 2-0 lead. The Ragin’ Cajuns finished the match with a season-high .291 hitting percentage (40 K, 10 E, 103 TA).
 
Chanelle Gardner led all players with 10 kills to lead the Cajuns contingent that reached nine kills. Katey Kyle, Sara Mossakowski and Hanna Rovira each tallied nine kills.
 
Rovira needed just 10 swings to pick up her nine kills. The total and .900 hitting percentage marked her season-high totals.
 
Julia Pasch threw up four blocks, all in the first set, in helping the Cajuns total eight blocks. Louisiana posted at least seven blocks for the fourth time in the past five matches.
 
Sydney Davis scooped up 19 digs, her season-high and the most by a Cajun on the young season. Stacey Reilly joined her in double figures with 10, her second straight outing of 10-plus digs.
 
"Our freshmen are coming along nicely," head coach Heather Mazeitis-Fontenot said. "We’re asking them to step into important roles and they’re delivering.
 
"Also proud of Jess (Bartczyszyn)," Mazeitis-Fontenot added. "She continues to step up her play each time out."
 
The Ragin’ Cajuns, coming off a 2-1 performance in the Sawyer Camillo Memorial Classic, ended their current homestand with a 3-1 mark.
 
Louisiana travels this weekend to Houston for the Adidas Rice Invitational being held Friday-Saturday, Sept. 11-12. The Ragin’ Cajuns meet Rice at 6 p.m., on Friday and have matches against Colorado at 12:30 p.m., and Sam Houston State at 5 p.m., on Saturday.
 
The Cajuns pulled out of an early deficit in the opening set on a Mossakowski kill that forged a 7-all tie. The squad then rode her serve for four unanswered points that opened an 11-7 advantage.
 
Leading 15-10, the final surge to put the set out of reach began with a kill by Kyle followed by back-to-back Jaguars errors, the last on a block by Gardner and Mossakowski that made it 18-10.
 
The Cajuns’ .444 hitting percentage in the second set kept the Jaguars at a distance. Southern closed the deficit to 16-13, then Louisiana forced the visitors into an attack error and subsequent Mossakowski kill pushed the lead to five points.
 
A 10-0 run, off the serve of Davis, staked Louisiana into an insurmountable lead in the final frame. The lead was no lower than six points, the last occurrence at 22-16. Three straight kills, one apiece from Kyle, Mossakowski and Gardner, sealed the triumph.
 
Louisiana extended its winning streak over Southern to 17 matches and swept the Jaguars for the 11th straight meeting.