The volleyball team beat the University of the Southwest (USW) 3-1 on Saturday. OLLU finishes the Red River Athletic Conference (RRAC) regular season with an 18-5 overall record and 11-1 conference mark.

The Saints were crowned RRAC Regular Season Co-Champions with Xavier University of Louisiana. OLLU enters the RRAC Tournament as the second seed out of six teams.

Head Coach Scott Mattera said, “One of the marks of a champion is being able to win when you don’t have your best game. It was a long road trip and the University of the Southwest is scrappy on defense and smart with their shots. They earned their breaks in game two and taught us a valuable lesson! We responded well and put it together in the third and fourth set to wrap up a regular-season co-championship!”

History

The Saints were 21-4 in the series record against USW prior to the match.

Scoring overview against USW

Set One – OLLU 25 – USW 20
Set Two – USW 25 – OLLU 18
Set Three – OLLU 25 – USW 12
Set Four – OLLU 25 – USW 16

On the offense

Overall, the Saints had 34 kills for a hitting percentage of .165. Southwest totaled 40 kills for a hitting percentage of .122.

Camila Ramirez (FR/El Paso, Texas) led the Saints with 12 kills. Valeria Trevino totaled a team-high 11 kills for the Mustangs.

Madelynn Strzelczyk (SO/Marion, Texas) assisted on 33 plays for the Saints while Alissa Mancera tallied 18 assists for USW.

Defensive standouts

OLLU had a total of 42 digs, led by Tina Trevino (FR/Laredo, Texas) with 18. Alexia Esparza tallied 28 digs for the Mustangs.

Serving it up

Three different Saints players tallied one service ace each. Autumn Lopez had two service aces for USW.

What’s next

The Saints await the winner of No. 3-seeded Huston-Tillotson University and No. 6-seeded Jarvis Christian College for a semifinal showdown. The Saints will host the RRAC Tournament starting on Nov. 12.