NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana – HBU hit an impressive .310 to roll to a 3-0 (25-18, 25-15, 25-17) sweep of New Orleans in the Southland Conference opener Thursday night at the Human Performance Center.
Junior outside hitter
Bailey Banks hit .484 with 16 kills and only one error on 31 attempts, adding 10 digs for her tenth double-double of the season for the Huskies (9-7, 1-0 SLC). Senior outside hitter
Melissa Fuchs recorded eight kills and led the team with 13 digs. Senior right side
Ashlee Vann chipped in with six kills, while junior middle blocker
Blair Gillard and junior outside hitter
Laura Fox had five each. Senior setter
Kayla Armer paced the HBU offense with 29 assists and had three errorless kills and eight digs. Junior libero
Hailey Erickson and sophomore defensive specialist
Rachel Angeles each came up with seven digs.
Jordan Yauch led UNO (3-11, 0-1) with seven kills and 13 digs, while Rondolyn Bryant had six putaways. Sarah Thomas had 22 assists and Samantha Uline posted 12 digs.
The Huskies held the Privateers to an .083 hitting percentage and held a 48-40 advantage in digs. The Privateers outblocked the Huskies, 7-5, but HBU had 12 more kills and 10 fewer attack errors than UNO.
In the opening set, the Huskies got six early kills from Banks, but only led 11-10. HBU then ripped off six-straight points, which included a pair of kills by Fox, but UNO rebounded to cut the deficit to three at 18-15. Leading 21-16, the Huskies scored three-straight to get to set point, before closing out the frame, 25-18. Banks had eight kills in the set, with only one error, on 15 attempts.
The second set was tied, 8-8, until HBU scored five-straight points with kills by Fox and Fuchs and three Privateer attack errors. UNO finally ended the drought and cut the Huskies' lead to 17-13, but HBU responded with six-straight points to open up a 10-point advantage and clinched the set on another Banks kill, 25-15.
UNO led 2-1 at the onset of the third, but HBU tallied seven of the next eight points to take a five-point lead. The Privateers got back-to-back kills by Bryant to trim the Huskies' lead to two, but leading 12-10, HBU scored four-straight aided by a couple of kills by Vann to push its lead to six. Yauch had a pair of kills as UNO scored three in a row to cut HBU's lead to three at 17-14. Coming out of a timeout, the Huskies got a kill by Fuchs to halt the short run and regain control. The Huskies scored the final four points of the match to take the final set, 25-17.
The Huskies continue their conference-opening road trip at Southeastern Louisiana Saturday at 1 p.m. in Hammond, Louisiana.
