Bulldogs sweep Alcorn State
The Louisiana Tech volleyball team had an all-around performance to dominate Alcorn State in straight sets (25-13, 25-15, 25-14) Tuesday night inside the Thomas Assembly Center.
LA Tech (3-1) held Alcorn (0-3) to a .012 hitting percentage, the lowest allowed since holding Mississippi Valley to a -. 024 on October 19, 2021. The Bulldogs offense finished with their best hitting mark since 2022 with a .383.
With the scored tied at two apiece in the first set, the Bulldogs reeled off a 9-1 run to take control of the set. The Lady Braves would keep up with Tech the rest of the set, but the Bulldog lead would be insurmountable.
The second set was a battle from the beginning, as the lead changed hands three times. With the score tied at six, the Bulldogs looked to pull away with four straight points, but the Lady Braves responded with three straight of their own to pull within 10-9.
From there, Tech started to assert their dominance. Grace Luevanos accounted for 3 kills during an 8-0 run for the Bulldogs. LA Tech cruised to the set win 25-15.
Alcorn took an early 2-0 lead in the third set, but again, the Bulldogs started asserting dominance.
An 11-4 run, during which three of the Lady Braves points came off service errors by Tech, sealed the match in the Bulldogs’ favor. Giulia Bonifacio, Rori Gray, and Jailen Hurley led the Bulldogs offensively. Bonifacio finished with 9 kills on a .571 hitting clip, Gray had 7 kills and a .545 hitting percentage, and Hurley had 6 kills and a .625 hitting mark. Lauren Albrecht had 17 assists, and McKenzie Johnson chipped in 16 digs for the Bulldogs.
Sydney Valentine and Erin Mims had 5 kills each to lead Alcorn. Harmoni Carswell has 9 digs, while Ramona Pulu finished with 8 assists.
“ It felt great to be back at the TAC in front of our home crowd, and I’m thankful to all our fans who came out to support us tonight,” Tech head coach Amber McCray said. “I’m pleased with our offense overall as we continued to see solid production from our right-side attack, along with seven different players all notching a .300 or higher hitting clip.
“ There were definitely moments I felt we could be more disciplined to clean up some areas we know we will need to be significantly better in heading into an extremely tough weekend ahead at Arkansas, but we still found a way to take care of business with a variety of different lineups on the floor gaining valuable experience that will aid us in the long run.”
The Bulldogs held their second straight opponent to under a .100 hitting clip, the first time since 2007, when they held four straight opponents under .100 from Oct. 28 to Nov. 8.
LA Tech also hit .383 for their highest hitting percentage since Aug. 26, 2022.
Tech travels to Fayetteville, Arkansas, for the Wooo Pig Invitational Friday through Saturday. Tech will take on Little Rock on Friday at 11 a.m., Rutgers on Saturday at noon, and No. 21 Arkansas at 7 p.m. on ESPN+.
