Volleyball Falls to Louisiana in First Round of Sun Belt Tournament

FOLEY, Ala. -- App State volleyball saw its season come to a close with a 3-0 (25-15, 25-23, 27-25) defeat at the hands of Louisiana on Thursday evening.

The West Division No. 3 seed Ragin' Cajuns (15-10) advance to take on East Division No. 2 seed Coastal Carolina on Friday. App State sees its season end with a 7-22 mark.

Louisiana jumped out to an early 5-0 lead and used another 5-0 run later in the set to take a 13-6 edge. App State pulled within five at 16-11, but the Ragin' Cajuns scored the next three points to take a 19-11 edge. Louisiana went on to win the opening set 25-15.
 
After the Ragin' Cajuns scored the first point of the second set, App State responded with four straight points, getting kills from Daryn Armstrong, McCall Denny and Victoria Wilform along the way. App State opened a 9-5 lead, but Louisiana battled back to tie the score at 13-13. With the score tied at 18-18, the Ragin' Cajuns scored two straight points to take a 20-18 lead. The Ragin' Cajuns extended their lead to three points at 24-21, but a block from Anna Kincaid and a kill from Denny brought the Mountaineers within a point at 24-23. Louisiana used a kill on the next point to win the set for a 2-0 lead.

Set 3 saw the Mountaineers score the first four points and open a 6-2 lead. Louisiana battled back to tie the score at 7-7. With the score tied at 17-17, the Mountaineers used a pair of Louisiana attack errors to open a 19-17 advantage. Louisiana answered with three straight points, but the Mountaineers came back with three points of their own to open a 22-20 edge. From there, the Ragin' Cajuns scored four straight points to take a 24-22 lead, but App State saved two match points on a kill from Denny and a block solo from Caroline Reeder. Louisiana took the lead right back, but App State saved another match point to tie the score at 25-25. From there, the Ragin' Cajuns got back-to-back kills to close out the victory.

Denny paced the Mountaineers with. 11 kills and five digs. Wilform added nine kills and Armstrong chipped in with six kills. Sam Bickley had 15 assists and four digs, while Sophie Cain had 13 assists, six digs and three service aces.

Emma Reilly finished with a match-high 18 digs. The three-time All-Sun Belt honoree sees her App State career close with 2,153 digs, which is a program record and tied for fourth most in Sun Belt history.