NEW ORLEANS—The McNeese volleyball team kept its Southland Conference Tournament hopes alive by defeating New Orleans 3-0 (25-22, 25-19, 25-20) Tuesday night.
McNeese (15-16, 5-10 SLC) opened the match on a 4-0 run in the opening set and never looked back as the Cowgirls held its largest lead of six points a few times in the set.
In the Cowgirls' 25-19 second set win, the match went back and forth for most of the way and consisted of several ties. With McNeese leading 19-17, the Cowgirls ended the set on a 6-2 run. Senior
Rachel Cagnina scored three of the Cowgirls' final six points on two kills and gave the Cowgirls the second set victory with an ace.
In the third set, McNeese jumped out to a 5-0 lead on kills by Sanchez and two service aces by
Kimberlyn Patterson. McNeese extended its lead to 13-8 but UNO wouldn't go away as the Privateers outscored the Cowgirls 10-6 to cut the Cowgirl lead to 19-18.
After a McNeese timeout, the Cowgirls scored the next four points to extend its lead to 23-18. A kill by
Rebecca Korenek followed by a kill by Sanchez gave McNeese the third set win and the overall match victory.
Cagnina led all players with a match-high 12 kills and three service aces. Cagnina ended the match with a .417 hitting percent on 24 attempts and only two errors.
McNeese had three players pick up double figure digs with
Adison Giambrone and Patterson leading the Cowgirls with 11 apiece. Sanchez was credited with 10. Patterson also ended the match with three service aces.
McNeese will travel to Nicholls for a 2 p.m. match Saturday in the regular season finale. A win by McNeese would clinch a Southland Conference Tournament berth.
