Ruston volleyball sweeps Ouachita, set for Airline
Photo by Darrell James Harper Cauley (7) blocks a return from Ouachita in the Bearcats’ straight-sets win over the Chiefs on Tuesday. Ruston hosts Airline tonight at the Sports Complex.
Ruston High volleyball continued its winning ways in the early stages of the season, sweeping Ouachita in straight sets (25-7, 25-18, 25-11) on Tuesday.
Harper Cauley led the team with 10 kills and eight digs to go with four aces, while Hannah Rollins put up five kills and three digs.
Jade Smith racked up six kills and three blocks, Baylor Cauley helped set up the Bearcats’ attack with 21 assists and seven aces, and Allie Richardson finished with four aces and five digs. Seniors Cala Wilson and Shelby Richardson put up two kills each.
Before Tuesday’s win, Ruston won three of its four matches at the Ascension Episcopal Tournament over the weekend, taking down Lafayette Christian, Ascension Episcopal, and Beau Chene as the team improved chemistry and confidence in the first road contests of the year.
The Bearcats are now 5-1 on the season.
“We came off a high-energy weekend playing a really fast tempo and so our goal was to control the controllables on our side of the court and try to play that fast tempo,” Ruston head coach Amanda Cauley said postgame. “ We got a little sloppy at times, but I think overall the girls handled business and they did a good job pushing through.”
Ruston jumped on Ouachita in the first set and never looked back, going up 10-3 with service aces keeping the Chiefs out of rotation. Before long, the Bearcats led 13-3 and Ouachita called timeout to try to regroup. But Ruston continued to look sharp, setting up effective attacks that ended in a 12-4 run to end the opening frame with Ruston winning 25-7.
The second set looked to be more of the same, as Ouachita scored Ruston’s first five points for them on serving errors and miscommunications at the net. Ruston was rolling up 11- 6 and eventually 18-9, but the Chiefs stormed back and tried to make it interesting with a run of their own to make it 22-17. But it was to no use as the Bearcats settled down and won the set 25-18.
In the third set, Ruston was back to its regular form and held a big lead early up 8-3, only to pad it to 14-8 before a Ouachita timeout. After the stoppage, Ruston closed the final set on an 11-3 run to win 25-11.
“They had a great weekend with lots of energy and chemistry and I definitely think we’re going to continue to build on that. I’m pleased overall,” Cauley said. “We’ve got a big one (tonight).”
Ruston will host Airline ( 3- 1) tonight at 6:30 at the Ruston Sports Complex, hoping to prevail in a rematch of a hard-fought summer scrimmage between the teams. The Bearcats defeated Airline in four sets last season (25-14, 25-18, 1525, 25-16).
