ULM Volleyball's Strong Start Not Enough Wednesday
Natchitoches, La. – The ULM volleyball team took a tough 3-1 loss to Northwestern State after coming on strong in the first set.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Set one, Northwestern State jumped out to an early four-point lead, but the Warhawks held them there to take the lead with an ace from Presleigh Williams. ULM held the momentum and took the set 25-17.

Set two the Demons came storming back with an early lead. Although the Warhawks battled back, they were unable to regain control to take the lead as the set score evened to 1-1.

Northwestern State continued into set three with the momentum on its side. The Demons led the entire set despite the Warhawks battle in fighting off three set points before Northwestern was able to seal the deal.

Set four was no different than the previous two sets where the demons jumped out to an early lead and closed out the match.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

-ULM had its best hitting percentage as a team in set three with a 0.158 percentage.

-ULM had its highest total of kills as a team in set two with 11 kills.

-Hope Pawlik led all team scorers with 12 kills.

-Kacey LeBlanc led the Warhawk defense with 22 digs for an average of 5.5 digs per set.

-Kaitlyn Shearer held strong at the net with three solo blocks and six block assists.

FROM COACH HILTZ

About the match: "Clearly a disappointing loss. We came out and played really, really well. We did everything we talked about wanting to do and showed how well we can play. Northwestern made some adjustments in the second set and we adjusted back but it wasn’t enough."

What we need to work on: "Passing wasn’t terrible, but still need to be better. Setting same thing not quite where we need to be to control matches."

Attitude: "We talked about emotional control being important for this match and one of our strengths is our positive energy on the court and on the bench last weekend it didn’t matter what happened on the court, whether we were winning or losing, the attitude stayed up. Tonight it dropped off when things stopped going our way."

UP NEXT

The Warhawks will continue their road swing to University of Central Arkansas for a weekend Invitational where the team will face Alcorn State (Miss.), Incarnate Word (Texas), Oral Roberts (Okla.) and the host team Central Arkansas on Sept. 2-3.