NEW ORLEANS (Nov. 11, 2022) – The Our Lady of the Lake University (OLLU) volleyball team has qualified for its ninth Red River Athletic Conference (RRAC) finals after defeating Louisiana Christian University (LCU) in the tournament's semifinals match.

The No. 1 seed Saints made it to the finals in 2008, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2021, and of those matches, the team went on to win the tournament in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2020.

The Saints marked their best-ever regular-season conference finish with a 16-0 record, and they are on a career-best 16-game-winning streak. With tonight's win, the Saints are 21-4 overall, while the No. 4 seed Wildcats end their season at 10-13 overall and 8-8 in the conference.

Head Coach Scott Mattera commented, "This was a typical conference tourney semifinal…there are very few easy sweeps this time of year as everyone is playing for their seasons. LCU played extremely clean, with only five errors in the first two games, and we had 13 hitting errors and a ton of missed serves. We weren't playing bad volleyball overall. In games three and four, we cleaned up the mistakes and rolled pretty well. 

"[Mia] Dorsey was a monster again with 24 kills on .445 hitting. Tina [Trevino] had 22 digs, and [Lauren] Reynard racked up 47 assists." 

History

The Saints are 4-0 against the Wildcats.

Basics

The Saints and Wildcats kept the first set close, with neither team leading by more than three points until halfway through the game. Fueled by kills from Tijana Kruta and Mia Francis, the Saints took their biggest lead of the period at 16-12. The Wildcats threatened and got to within two points at 20-18, but Lauren Reynard's serve pushed the Saints to 22-18. A pair of kills from LCU's Destinee Farris put the Saints in danger, but a ball-handling error gave the Saints the 25-22 win.

The Wildcats powered the second set as they kept the Saints at bay. Besides a very early lead by OLLU, the Wildcats dominated the second period to win 25-19.

The Saints regained the momentum in the third set to their biggest lead of the match at 15-8. Mia Dorsey controlled the offense, while Reynard was almost flawless from the serving line. With the score at 22-13, the Wildcats again threatened by scoring five points, but the Saints pulled off the victory to win 25-18.

The final frame was driven by the Saints, who led throughout. Reynard's serve scored four straight points before she committed an error. A kill from Dorsey ended the set at 25-15 and the match at 3-1.

Scoring overview

Set One – OLLU 25 – LCU 22

Set Two – OLLU 19 – LCU 25

Set Three – OLLU 25 – LCU 18

Set Four – OLLU 25 – LCU 15

Set review

In the first set, OLLU recorded 17 kills and four errors on 41 attacks, with a hitting percentage of .317. LCU had12 kills and five errors on 37 attacks for a hitting percentage of .189.

The Saints had 16 kills in the second set and nine errors on 41 attacks for a hitting percentage of .149. LCU had 12 kills and no errors on 30 attacks for a hitting percentage of .400.

In the third set, OLLU recorded 15 kills and four errors on 32 attacks, with a hitting percentage of .344. LCU had eight kills and five errors on 35 attacks for a hitting percentage of .086.

In the final set, OLLU had 15 kills and two errors on 38 total attacks for a hitting percentage of .342. LCU had six kills and six errors on 37 attacks for a hitting percentage of .000.

On the offense

Overall, the Saints had 63 kills for a hitting percentage of .278. LCU totaled 38 kills for a hitting percentage of .158.

Dorsey led the Saints with 24 kills – her second-best performance this year. Destinee Farris led her team with 14 kills.

Lauren Reynard assisted on 47 plays for the Saints. Emma Cother had 33 assists for the Wildcats.

Defensive standouts

OLLU had 69 digs, led by Tina Trevino with 22. Leah Stamps tallied 27 digs for the Wildcats.

Kruta marked four blocks for the Saints, while Dorse and Madalyn Gonzalez tallied three each.

Serving it up

Reynard and Kruta had two aces for the Saints. Kierra Jones and Cother had two aces each for the Wildcats.

What's next

The Saints will play No. 2 seed Xavier University of Louisiana at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 12, for the postseason championship.

The Saints swept the Gold Nuggets earlier this year 3-0 in both matches. Xavier finished its conference schedule with a 14-2 record (only two losses were against OLLU) and is 20-8 overall.

The Gold Nuggets faced No. 6 seed University of the Southwest this evening in the tournament's other semifinals match and won 3-0 (25-11, 25-12 and 25-13).

The tournament is hosted by Xavier, the 2021 RRAC Champion, in New Orleans.