NEW ORLEANS, La. – Nicholls State University outside hitter
Kera Arrington exploded for 21 kills in the Colonels 3-2 victory over Alcorn in New Orleans on Saturday afternoon.
Nicholls' (2-1) offense recorded more kills than Alcorn in the opening set but made more mistakes allowing the Lady Braves to take the first set 27-25. The Colonels responded by taking the second set 25-21. The teams alternated again as Alcorn took the third frame 25-21 as the Red & Gray offense hit a match low .175 percent for the set. Nicholls bounced back in the fourth stanza as they hit .324 to dominate the set 25-14. The Colonels did not look back as hit .50 percent from the floor to win the final set 15-7.
The Colonels offense finished the match with 65 kills as Arrington led the way with a .357 hitting percentage. She led the team with 42 attacks while only committing six errors.
The attack was paced effortlessly by Isabelle Padilla (34) and
Jenna Cicherski (22) who combined for 56 of the Colonels' 64 assists. The duo mostly set up Arrington along with
Mckenzie Mitchell and Zahahrah Edwards-Wylie who finished with 16 and 12 kills, respectively.
The Red & Gray defense had four players register double figure digs. Libero
Natalia Navarro anchored the unit with 21 digs while
Lizzie Kraft added 13. Mitchell tallied 12 digs to record her first double-double of the season while Padilla chipped in with 10. At the net, middle blocker
Maya Schirmer had five blocks while
Beryn Hyland,
Harper Holden,
Sydney Valentine, and Edwards-Wylie had two blocks apiece.
ALL TOURNAMENT
Nicholls outside hitter
Kera Arrington was named to the All-Tournament Team as she totaled 43.5 points in the first three matches of the season as part of the two-day event hosted by Nicholls and LSU-NO. She had 12 kills in the season opening victory against Stonehill followed by the nine kill performance against Oral Roberts. She finished the weekend with an outstanding 21 kill performance in a five set victory over Alcorn.
UP NEXT
The Red & Gray will take on Grambling on the road on Wednesday, September 2.
