LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) -- The Louisiana Volleyball team was left with a series split against South Alabama after the visiting Jaguars use their defense to contain the Ragin’ Cajuns offense and claim a 3-1 win (25-23, 20-25, 25-19, 25-20) on Saturday, October 25 at E.K. Long Gym.

Louisiana (12-8, 4-6 SBC) saw its hitting percentage from the series opener cut in half as South Alabama (13-8, 8-2 SBC) used its block to force 15 of the 26 attack errors its defense created. The Ragin’ Cajuns were limited to .151 hitting (47 K 26, E, 139 TA) after debuting at .315 hitting in the series opener.

The defensive pressure was enough for South Alabama to finish with a 55-47 advantage in kills. After the match was evened, the Jags limited UL to 19 kills over the final two stanzas while creating 31 kills of their own.

There was only one lead change the entire match, occurring when USA scored three straight points to offset the Cajuns earning the first tally of Set 4. From there the Jags prevented Louisiana from forcing the winner-take-all frame.

Both sides spread the offensive numbers across the board to counter the combined 25 blocks in the contest. Louisiana had six players score at least five kills and South Alabama had five reach the mark but saw three accumulate 12 kills or more.

The Jaguars’ block went to work immediately stuffing the Ragin’ Cajuns five times in Set 1. That led to nine attack errors by Louisiana – the difference in a frame USA won by a mere two points (25-23).

The Ragin’ Cajuns began setting different options to counter the USA block which once again had five stuffs in Set 2. Six different players scored multiple kills helping the squad stay ahead throughout in evening the match.

South Alabama drew a pair of ties with the latter at 12-all before a 4-0 run capped off by a Kennedy Gustafson ace built a 16-12 lead. The Cajuns wouldn’t be denied after USA forged a 22-all tie, collecting a side out off a service error then maintaining the edge with a combo block from Lindsey Henry and Marlee Ervin.

Louisiana followed the serve of Sophia Armstrong to get back into the race for the match lead after falling behind 9-4. Armstrong served up four straight points to forge a 9-all tie, however the Jaguars reclaimed the lead for good with a tiebreaking kill from Alexa Strandberg and an ace from Maradith O’Gorman.

The Jaguars tightened their defense further after taking the match lead, keeping the Ragin’ Cajuns from registering a kill in Set 4 until a 14-7 lead was built. Louisiana fought back later using a 7-1 run sparked by three kills from Ervin to trim the deficit to 18-16, but after a timeout yielded three straight points which provided USA an open window to close out the match.

The loss kept Louisiana in a tie with Troy for the fifth and final spot from the SBC West Division for the conference tournament with four division matches remaining. The Ragin’ Cajuns have the season tiebreaker over the Trojans.

Cailin Demps and Grace Sweeney produced 10 kills apiece to lead the group of six that had at least five kills. For Demps, she pushed her career kills total past 900 (currently at 902).

Ervin was a close second with nine kills, upping her series total to 25 kills, while Henry was highly effective from the middle with five kills off of eight swings.

Libero Kennedy Gustafson scooped 16 digs to give her double figures in all 10 SBC matches this season and 17th time in 20 outings overall. It also pushed her season total over the 300-mark for the first time in her collegiate career (now has 304 digs).

Sweeney collected 14 digs to finish with the lone double-double in the match on either side.

Henry totaled eight blocks to lead the efforts on the frontline, one off of season-high total (9) that was tied last weekend against Troy.

Ryleigh Garis continued her excellent work directing the offense, passing out 23 of the team’s 44 assists.

UP NEXT FOR LOUISIANA
The Ragin' Cajuns take a road trip, traveling to Jonesboro, Arkansas for a two-match Sun Belt Conference series with Arkansas State at First National Bank Arena from Friday-Saturday, October 31-November 1.

UL and ASU are slated to meet at 6:00 p.m. on Friday (Oct. 31) and 1:00 p.m. on Saturday (Nov. 1). Both matches are being televised on ESPN+.

The series with the Red Wolves continues SBC West division play – the determining factor for conference tournament qualification – which wraps up the following week at E.K. Long against ULM from November 6-7.

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