Nicholls volleyball team faces interesting juxtaposition with upcoming road foes

The Nicholls volleyball team finds itself in an interesting juxtaposition heading into two road games this week.

At this point in the season, Southland Conference teams are playing each other for the second time. In the case of Nicholls, Texas A&M-Commerce, and Lamar, they all have an interesting recent history.

Earlier in the season, Nicholls defeated Texas A&M-Commerce in Thibodaux for its only win thus far in Southland play.

In a game also played in Thibodaux, Lamar beat Nicholls for its only win this season.

The teams meet again when Nicholls travels to Commerce to take on the Lions at 6:30 p.m. Thursday before the Lady Colonels play Lamar in Beaumont at 11 a.m. Saturday.

Nicholls goes into the week 1-13 SLC and 3-21 overall. Texas A&M-Commerce is 9-18 overall and 5-9 in the league. Lamar is 1-12 in the league and 1-23 overall.

Nicholls is coming off a three-set home loss to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi last Saturday. The Lady Colonels stayed with the SLC co-leader for much of each game in three sets, eventually falling 14-25, 18-25, 19-25.

In the earlier Nicholls and Texas A&M-Commerce encounter, a victory in Game 4 gave Nicholls a 25-14, 25-18, 21-25, 25-20 win – the first SLC win of the season for the Lady Colonels. In snapping a 12-game losing streak and moved to 1-9 in the SLC and 3-17 overall at the time.

Freshman Gracie Campbell led Nicholls with 17 kills.

Nicholls sophomore middle blocker Paris Dixon led Nicholls with six block assists while also coming up with eight kills.

Freshman Autumn Perry had 11 kills and four block assists in the match.

Essence Allen led the Lions with 14 kills while Yasmin Figueiredo amassed 14 kills.

After Nicholls won the first two games, Nicholls led 3-1 early in the third set but was unable to pull off the sweep.

Trailing 21-23, Nicholls surrendered the final two points on kills by Maddie Allgood and Kitana Tuufuli to force the deciding fourth set.

With Nicholls holding a 23-15 lead in the fourth set, a kill by Commerce’s Yasmin Figueiredo off a serve by Campbell started a four-point run for the Lions behind the serve of Allgood.

A kill by Commerce’s Jade Smith, an attack error by Perry, and a kill by the Lions’ Reese Fetty cut the Lady Colonels’ lead to 23-19.

A kill by Perry, followed by a kill by Fetty, made the score 24-20 and sent Fetty to the service line.

Fetty’s serve was long, giving Nicholls match point at 25-20.

Less than two weeks earlier, a 21-15, 28-26, 25-14, 21-25, 12-15 defeat to Lamar left Nicholls winless in Southland play at 0-7 and 2-15 overall at the time. The win allowed the Cardinals to move to 1-6 conference mark and 1-17 overall.

In Game 4, Nicholls was up 2-1 in sets and leading as late as 12-11 before Lamar tied the game off the serve of Kaeden Robinson and Lamar never looked back on its way to the 25-21 win to force a deciding Game 5.

Nicholls raced out to a 4-0 advantage in the fifth game before Lamar took the lead at 6-5.

The game was tied 11-11 before the Cardinals took the lead on a service error by Nicholls’ Rae Leano. Lamar won 15-11, with the match-winning point coming on a kill by Lamar’s Lyric Jordan.

Playing in only her second match since coming back from an injury, Campbell, a freshman, had 28 kills to pace the Nicholls attack. Perry had 13 kills.

Kendall Battistella had 29 assists for Nicholls and Berra Soyler had 22. Perry had four block assists to pace the Lady Colonels.

Taisha Rhone had 27 kills and six service aces for Lamar. Jo Moffitt had 52 assists. Gracie Cassidy had eight block assists for the Cardinals.

Following the road trip, Nicholls will close out the regular season with its final two games. The Lady Colonels will host the University of New Orleans on November 9 before ending the year at Houston Christian on November 11.