VB's Louisiana road trip features UNO and Nicholls

Thursday, October 11

New Orleans, La.

6 p.m.

Abilene Christian

New Orleans

Photo by: Jeremy Enlow

VB's Louisiana road trip features UNO and Nicholls

10/10/2018 1:48:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

ABILENE – Abilene Christian volleyball returns to the road this weekend for matches at New Orleans (Thursday at 6 p.m.) and Nicholls (Saturday at noon). The team flies from Abilene Wednesday afternoon less than 24 hours removed from a sensational five-set home victory over Houston Baptist.

Both matches will offer live stats and video streams. ACU is 5-0 all-time vs. New Orleans and 4-4 vs. Nicholls after splitting the 2017 season series.

The Wildcats (7-10, 4-1 Southland Conference) were down two sets to one heading into the fourth set, but used a late 9-3 run to flip a 20-17 deficit into a 25-23 win. And in what was a definitive grand finale, the home team repeatedly staved off defeat by scoring four consecutive points after the Huskies reached match point at 14-12.

Seniors Kendall Bosse and Lauren Walker combined for the final three points after classmate Jacey Smith made it a one-point contest with her 16th kill of the night. Bosse and Walker first blocked Mikayla Givens to tie the score at 14-14, and once more after going ahead 15-14 on one of Walker's career high 17 kills. Bosse tossed up 53 assists as she continues to lead the Southland with 707 assists and 9.82 assists per game.

Bosse last night additionally surpassed Neely Borger's (2010-14) D1 era program record of 1,361 service attempts, and enters this weekend with 1,377 while remaining two aces shy of besting Madelyn Robinett's (2010-13) program mark of 86. Jacey Smith is right behind Bosse with 83 career service aces.

Walker's five block assists vs. the Huskies pushed her past Borger (327) for second on the Wildcats' D1 career leader list with 328. Lexi Mercier is the Wildcats' D1 era leader in all three blocking categories with 81 solos, 388 assists and 469 total (fifth all-time).

Walker's 362 career total blocks rank her seventh on the Wildcats' all-time list, which is topped by Linda Evans' (1988-92) 676.

New Orleans (10-12, 4-3 Southland) Tuesday night suffered a 3-2 loss at Southern in Baton Rouge that pushed its losing streak to three matches, and the Colonels (3-17, 1-6 Southland) have been idle since last Saturday when they dropped a 3-1 decision at McNeese. Nicholls will welcome Sam Houston State to Stopher Gymnaisum Thursday before welcoming in the Wildcats.

The Privateers have gone to a fifth game five times over their last six matches and are No. 1 in the conference in kills (1,030), aces (134), blocks (195), assists (967) and digs (1,216).

UNO senior middle blocker Kaitlyn Grice ranks third nationally with 104 total blocks, and leads the league with a .354 hitting percentage and 289.5 points. Her classmate and outside hitter Blessing Dunn is the conference's leader with 29 service aces.