Nov. 6, 2009

Box Score

THIBODAUX - The Nicholls State University women's volleyball team (11-16, 5-8 Southland Conference) dropped the opening set of Friday's Senior Night match to Texas-San Antonio (10-17, 5-8 Southland), but the Colonels' rallied to win the next three straight for a 3-1 win that put Nicholls back into the Southland Conference Tournament hunt.

The Colonels entered the contest one game behind UTSA for the seventh spot in the eight-team tournament field and tied with Southeastern Louisiana for eighth. However, the Lions owned the head-to-head tiebreaker over Nicholls after winning both matchups between the two squads this season.

Friday night's win, coupled with Southeastern's loss to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, gives the Colonels the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Roadrunners for the seventh seed in the league tournament.

The Colonels were led by stellar performances from their senior class on Friday night as outside hitters Manieka Golden (team-high 10 kills) and Rachel Spreen (match-high three aces), setter Amy Whitehead (match-high 33 assists) were major factors in the Nicholls' victory.

"Tonight was a big night," head coach Chris Laird said. "What a great win on Senior Night. The girls played great. We lost that first set, but we kind of played inspired in the second, third and fourth sets and took care of what we needed to do. We talked about what we needed to take care of, and our girls did a great job of listening and adjusting. These seniors mean the world to me, and we're going to miss them, but we still have them for three more matches. So, we'll try to get the most out of them, but they did a great job tonight."

The Colonels got themselves in an early hole as UTSA came out and hit .346 (12-3-26) in the opening frame while limiting Nicholls to a .027 team hitting percentage (9-8-37) en route to a 25-17 win.

However, Nicholls rebounded in the second with a momentum-changing 25-16 victory to even the match at 1-1. The Colonels got three kills and an ace from Spreen to spark the offense, and the Nicholls defense posted 3.0 total blocks and took advantage of 16 Roadrunner errors as the Colonels never trailed en route to the win.

The Colonels continued to pick up steam in the second as Spreen once again led the team with three kills in the set. The Colonels posted a .290 team hitting percentage (10-1-31) with just one attack error while sophomore Rachel Yezak and freshman Jasmine Harris combined on 4.0 blocks to keep UTSA in check before taking a 2-1 advantage in the match with a 25-17 win.

Nicholls came out in the fourth set looking to dash any hopes UTSA may have had for a comeback. The Colonels never trailed in the fourth frame after opening up with an 8-3 run.

Golden led the way with four kills and no errors on eight attempts for a .500 hitting percentage. As a team, the Colonels hit at a .440 clip (12-1-25) while limiting the Roadrunners to a .139 (15-10-36) percentage en route to the 25-17 win and a 3-1 victory.

Friday's win also marks the first time Nicholls has surpassed the ten-won mark since a 19-14 season in 2002.

Nicholls will look to help solidify their standing in the conference tournament field when they return to action by hosting TAMUCC at 4 p.m. at Stopher Gym to conclude the home portion of their 2009 schedule.

The Islanders head into the match after claiming their first conference win of the season by virtue of a 3-0 win over Southeastern on Friday.