Photo GalleryHOUSTON – Sophomore middle blocker
Blair Gillard registered a career-high 13 kills to fuel the HBU volleyball team to a season-opening 3-0 (25-13, 25-11, 25-13) victory over Alcorn State on Friday night in Sharp Gym as part of the Marriott Houston Westchase Invitational.
Gillard, a native of La Grange, Texas, eclipsed the double-figure kill mark for the first time in her career, doing so on 17 swings. Her 13 kills single-handedly outpaced the offense of the Lady Braves (0-1), who turned in 12 total as a team. For the match, Gillard turned in a .706 attack percentage, as the Huskies (1-0) swung a .443 clip as a team.
Junior setter
Kayla Armer captained the Husky offense, registering 38 of the HBU's 42 assists, while junior
Jessica Wooten and sophomore
Hailey Erickson anchored the back line with eight and nine digs, respectively.
The Huskies also had a strong showing when holding serve, taxing Alcorn for 11 service aces.
Despite yielding the opening point of the match, HBU charged out front 8-1 in the first set. The Lady Braves were later able to pull within three at 11-8, but miscues and four kills from Wooten helped the Huskies take the set 25-13.
HBU turned in the highest offensive performance of the match in the second set, picking up 17 kills on a .500 clip. The Huskies doubled-up Alcorn 12-6 midway through and never wavered in claiming a 25-11 win and 2-0 lead at the break.
In the third set, HBU again outmatched the Lady Braves at the net, landing 15 kills, including four from sophomore
Laura Fox, in claiming the match with a 25-13 victory.
The Huskies will close their host tournament with two matches tomorrow. HBU will play UT Rio Grande Valley in a 10 a.m. first serve, before seeing Louisiana Tech at 7 p.m.
Postgame Quotes – Head Coach Trent HermanOpening Comments…"It was great for us to get out on the court finally. The kids were getting a little tired of seeing each other after three weeks of practice. We got out to a little bit of a shaky start. There were a little bit of nerves from the girls playing in front of their home crowd. Opening at home is both good and bad. It is good to be at home, but it also a little nerve-racking for the girls, especially some of the newcomers, having friends and family there for their first match. We had to overcome that."
On team effort…"We had three new starters this year, joining our veterans. The first few weeks of practice are about trying to get everybody on the same page, being comfortable with their roles and playing together. One of the things I really liked, was we were able get some of our bench players in and they came in and did a great job. They were ready to play and filled in with no problem."
On quick turnaround for two matches on Saturday…"I told them, 'Go grab some food and get to bed.' We go back at it right away tomorrow, playing at 10 a.m. and then later at 7 p.m. The mindset is to file this one away and get ready to compete again."
