The volleyball team defeated the University of the Southwest (USW) in the Red River Athletic Conference (RRAC) Championship match 3-1 to earn a bid for the NAIA National Tournament. The Saints are 11-1 overall and finish the regular season with a 6-0 RRAC mark. OLLU has won 10 straight matches.  

Head Coach Scott Mattera said, “We certainly did have our ‘A’ game today, but credit to Southwest. They had a good game plan and played so hard. They really gave us a scare. In the end, though, we are taking pride in how much our investment in each other carried us through.”

Mattera continued, “It would have been easy to let this one slip away when everything was going their way, but our players were saying all the right things, and we never lost faith in each other. This was a win for all of the efforts we put into our team culture.”

History

The Saints are 18-4 against USW all-time.

Basics

The Saints were tested throughout the entire match. The Mustangs grabbed the third set 25-23 but the Saints held on to win in four sets. OLLU totaled a .316 hitting percentage and 55 kills. The Saints are RRAC regular-season champions, tournament champions and will compete in the NAIA National Tournament. The achievement marks Head Coach Mattera’s first trip to nationals with the team after taking the helm in 2019. Kalani Ketchens (SR/San Antonio, Texas) led the Saints with 15 kills and 37 total attacks.

Scoring overview against USW

Set One – OLLU 25 – USW 17
Set Two – OLLU 25 – USW 20
Set Three – USW 25 – OLLU 23
Set Four – OLLU 25 – USW 20

Set review

In the first set, OLLU recorded 10 kills and two errors on 31 total attacks for a hitting percentage of .258.

The Saints had 20 kills in the second set and three errors on 35 total attacks for a hitting percentage of .486.

In the third set, OLLU had nine kills and three errors on 34 total attacks for a hitting percentage of .176.

The Saints had 16 kills in the fourth set and four errors on 36 total attacks for a hitting percentage of .333.

On the offense

Overall, the Saints had 55 kills for a hitting percentage of .316. USW had 43 kills for a hitting percentage of .151.

Leading the way for the Saints was Ketchens with 15 kills. Tijana Kruta (JR/Bar, Montenegro) followed with 13 kills.

USW’s Glenys Maldonado led the Mustangs with 13 kills.

Serving it up

The Saints tallied 11 service aces while the Mustangs recorded seven.

What’s next

The Saints participate in the NAIA National Tournament starting on April 17.