After a long weekend in Natchitoches for the Battle for the Boot Tournament, the ULM volleyball team walked away with only one win.
ULM began the tournament playing Southeastern, a team that beat LSU a week prior.
A dominant first-set win for the Warhawks (25-17) only served to lull them into a false sense of security, as the next three ended in increasingly difficult losses (26-24, 25-19, 25-14).
The team hoped its second match versus Southern would be a repeat of the previous week’s sweep over the Jaguars. Indeed, sets one and two went smoothly for the Warhawks, complete with multiple two and three-point runs. However, a five-point run by the Jaguars on set three showed that victory wouldn’t be so easy after all.
Sets three and four put ULM’s uneasiness on full display. Service and attacking errors plagued the Warhawks as their chance at victory slipped further away. Southern pulled away from sets three and four with wins (25-23 and 25-22 respectively.)
In a close fifth set, junior Madeline Villareal put an end to the game before Southern had a chance to come back, winning it for the Warhawks 15-11.
Saturday’s opponent, Northwestern State, swept the Warhawks with decisive second and third-set victories.
While the Demons gave ULM some breathing room in set one, only winning 25-20, set two showed no signs of slowing down. Two separate four-point runs late in the set were enough to demonstrate the Demons were in control of the game, winning the set 25-19.
NSU showed no hesitation during the third set and executed a near-constant stream of scoring. The Demons demolished the Warhawks with a score of 25-10 to win the set and the match. Former Warhawk Tessa Gerwig was responsible for seven of the kills in the final set.
The volleyball team travels to Lake Charles on Tuesday to face McNeese for its last non-conference matchup of the season.
Conference play will begin Thursday and Friday when the Warhawks head to San Marcos to battle the Bobcats of Texas State.
