Aug. 28, 2007

Box Score

MONROE, La. - With two teams at 0-3 early in the 2007 volleyball season, something had to give when the Colonels and Warhawks met in Tuesday night's contest in Monroe. With the first win of the season on the line, it would take five sets to determine a winner, and a one-error performance by the team in the final set gave the Colonels the victory.

The Colonels had 20 kills less than the Warhawks, but corrected the number of costly errors that hindered them in the Auburn tournament and had a dozen less errors than ULM in the match. "Tonight was a huge win for us," coach Chris Laird said. "Any win on the road is huge, and the players did a good job of finishing the match."

Both teams began the match neck and neck until ULM started to break away from the Colonels, with an eight-point lead at one point during the first set. Still, the Colonels would claw back and eventually tie the match at 23 all. There would be three ties and three lead changes in the next seven points as the Warhawks would only allow Nicholls to get to 27 points before taking the match 30-27.

Nicholls continued to give ULM confidence early, but in this match, the Colonels would gain wind late and held off the Warhawks, winning the match 30-20.

The next two sets would also be split between the two teams, with ULM winning game three 30-20, and Nicholls winning game four 30-23. With the score tied at 8-8 in the fifth set, it was anybody's match until a Chelsea Adams kill put Nicholls up 9-8, which led to the Colonels eventual 15-12 victory for the match win. "Although we didn't play as well as we could have, it was still a big step toward being a more complete team," Laird said. "Everybody played a part in the win, and I was very proud of the way the girls fought through the match."

Rachel Spreen led all Colonels with 13 kills in the match, with a .321 hitting percentage followed by Chelsey Adams with nine kills. Aaliyah Muhammad and Chelsey Dockrey would each chip in seven kills each. Four ULM players had over ten kills with Stephanie Hall's 16 leading the Warhawks.

The Colonels will be back in action this weekend as the team participates in the UNO Labor Day Classic.

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