COOKEVILLE, TN – The Nicholls State University was beaten by Radford, West Georgia, and Tennessee Tech in the 2024 Golden Eagle Invitational at the Eblen Center on Sept. 13-14.
GAME ONE: Nicholls (0) Tennessee Tech (3) | 23-25, 14-25, 16-25
The Colonels opened the weekend with a matchup against the host Golden Eagles. After hitting .289 in the first set the Colonels hit .094 and .111 in the second and third to fall 3-0.
Senior middle blocker
Makila Billingsley led the offense with 12 kills while
Tierney Terrell and
Leah Linares Castro had six apiece.
Ava-Claire Calais and
Evelyn Trivino Espinosa paced the attack with 13 and 12 assists respectively.
Libero
Kenley Nonato anchored the defense with 12 digs followed by Terrell (8) and Billingsley (7).
Jordan Gamble,
Khara Morton, and
Olivia Lunt had one block apiece.
GAME TWO: Nicholls (0) Radford (3) | 21-25, 16-25, 15-25
The Colonels second match was like the first as they posted its highest hitting percentage (.211) in the first set. The attack struggled in the second set (.033) and third set (.097) as Radford built momentum and took the match 3-0.
The Red & Gray offense was spearheaded by Linares Castro as she led all scorers with 10 kills followed by Billingsley and
Olivia Lunt who registered seven apiece. Espinosa and Calais tallied 16 and 14 assists respectively.
Defensively, Gamble had four blocks while Billingsley and Terrell each had two. Nonato had 11 digs followed by Terrell and Espinosa who registered five apiece.
GAME THREE: Nicholls (1) West Georgia (3) | 21-25, 33-31, 12-25, 21-25
In the final match of the weekend, the Colonels hit .268 in the second set and tallied 21 kills to win their lone set of the tournament 33-31. However, the Colonels hit .114, -.077, and .089 in the other three sets to hit .129 for the match.
Terrell led all scorers with 18 kills followed by Billingsley (11) and Castro (7). Espinosa and Calais paced the offense with 23 and 16 assists.
Nicholls defense was anchored by Nonato who had 20 digs followed by Terrell (18) and Billingsley (12). In the middle Gamble had five blocks while
Khara Morton and Casto had four and three respectively.
For her efforts throughout the weekend, Billingsley was named All-Tournament for registering a team-high 30 kills, 21 digs, and four blocks across the three matches.
UP NEXT
The Red & Gray (4-5) will play their final two non-conference games next week. First, they will host Southern on Tuesday, Sept. 17 at 6:30 pm inside Stopher Gym before playing a road contest at Grambling on Thursday Sept. 19 at 5 pm.
