Tech volleyball goes 1-2 at Battle for the Boot event

The Louisiana Tech volleyball team dropped their final non-conference match of the season against Southeastern Louisiana on the final day of the Battle for the Boot in Prather Coliseum on the campus of Northwestern State on Saturday afternoon.

Tech fell behind early after a flurry of kills by Southeastern grew the lead to 12-4. The Bulldogs would work to fight their way back into the match, but eight errors by Tech and a 0.409 hitting percentage by Southeastern would lead to the Lady Lions taking the first set.

Ashley Taylor and Luisa Araujo started the second set with a block that led the Bulldogs into a 7-4 lead after an ace from Grace Krohn. The Lady Lions would use a 9-2 run to regain the lead at 17-12 before Sa’Mayah Medford and Sydney Jackwin would try to bring Tech back.

Medford would account for two kills, a block, and an ace to help the Bulldogs pull within three. Combining with Medford on the block, Jackwin would account for the other point in that run. Tech would pull to 23-22 before Southeastern closed the set with the final two points.

The Bulldogs started slow in the third stanza, once again falling behind. Medford would bring Tech back this time with a pair of kills that tied the set. With their back against the wall, the Bulldogs used a 4-1 run to cut into the lead. Jackwin and Ashley Taylor helped bring Tech back this time, accounting for all four points during the run. Southeastern would get the final two points to win the match 3-0 (25-13, 25-22, 25-21).

Tech also lost to Northwestern State (20-25, 23-25, 16-25) and defeated Southern (25-16, 24-26, 25-21, 25-10) on Friday.

“We obviously know we are a much better team than we showed today and that’s disappointing,” Tech head coach Amber McCray said. “ I’m thankful we have a week to go regroup, shuffle some things around to fix our shortcomings and put ourselves in the best position to compete well opening conference play at FIU.”