No. 23 Owls overpower Lady Techsters in straight sets
Lady Techster Kalee Cadwell (9) lifts a set for a Tech hitter during Sunday’s volleyball match against No. 23 Rice at the Thomas Assembly Center, while teammate Ashley Taylor (18) looks on. Photo by Darrell James
The Louisiana Tech volleyball team fell 3-0 (17-25, 18-25, 15-25) to No. 23 Rice Sunday afternoon inside the Thomas Assembly Center on Karl Malone Court.
Tech (7-1, 1-1 C-USA) went back and forth with Rice (12-1, 1-0 CUSA) in the first set until until the Owls opened up a lead with a 5-0 scoring run to give them six-point advantage.
Andrea Spasojevic, Imana Ellis and Chard’e Vanzandt all delivered kills in the Lady Techsters attempt to shorten the Owl’s lead, but were not able to shorten it enough. Spasojevic finished the set with two kills and three digs.
Rice took an early lead in the second set, but the Techsters did not settle. Down by seven, the Tech produced a 5-0 scoring run to only give the Owls only a two-point edge. Morgan Smith, along with Vanzandt and Spasojevic, all delivered kills during the scoring run to add to the two errors from Rice.
The Lady Techsters gave up two errors and two kills to give Rice the momentum to finish the set on top.
The first point of the third set went to Tech due to an error on a bad set from Rice. The Owls came back with a kill and continued to increase their lead throughout the set. The Lady Techsters were not unable to catch back up with the lead Rice put up and fell 15-25 in the final set.
“There’s a reason Rice is the No. 23 team in the country and has beaten several ranked opponents already this year,” Tech head coach Amber McCray said. “Their veteran setter is phenomenal and does an excellent job of running a balanced offense with multiple players able to score, something we also try to do but unfortunately did not do a great job of today. I think McKenzie Johnson kept us in a number of rallies with her defense, but ultimately our inability to terminate was the most glaring difference in this match.
“Despite today, there was still so much growth we saw this weekend and momentum we can build on heading into a couple of key road trips next week,” she added.
Spasojevic totaled nine kills and three digs for the Lady Techsters, while McKenzie Johnson had 17 digs and Sydney Jackwin recorded 12.
Tech will return on the road to face off with UTEP Friday in El Paso, Texas. First serve is scheduled for 7 p.m.
