Nicholls volleyball team falls to UNO in three sets in final home match of the season

The Nicholls women’s volleyball team built a pair of six-point leads in the opening set of their final home match of the year but ultimately lost the game and suffered a three-set defeat to the University of New Orleans, 22-25, 20-25, 25-13 Thursday night at Stopher Gym.

Nicholls fell to 2-15 in the Southland Conference and 4-23 overall. UNO moved to 5-12 in the Southland and 7-21 overall.

It was the final match at home for Jhayla Bolden of Nicholls. Bolden is the only senior on a young Lady Colonel team that played more and more of their freshman players as the season progressed.

“It’s kind of bitter-sweet, mostly bitter. It is what it is. It could have been better,” said Bolden, who managed two kills in her final appearance at Stopher Gym.

Being part of a program that has been down for many years, time seemed to march on in various ways, Bolden said.

“Sometimes it was fast, sometimes it was slow. This year kind of went by really fast, but I think us as a team, we really clicked off the court, but it just really didn’t move onto the court most days,” she said.

Freshmen dominated the play for Nicholls. Deniz Akgul had 10 kills, while fellow freshmen Grace Campbell and Addison Phares added eight each in the three-set match.

Another freshman, Berra Soyler, had 16 assists for Nicholls. Kendall Battistella, a junior, led the team with 18 assists.

Campbell led with two blocks assists for a Nicholls team that produced a total of only five in the match.

Nicholls jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the first set and held the advantage for most of the game before falling 22-25.

The Lady Colonels held a lead of as many as six points when Nicholls doubled up on UNO at 12-6 on a bad set by Lani Alleman of the Privateers, and at 16-10 on an attack error by Karen Cordero Barr.

UNO took its first lead of the set at 20-19 on a service ace by ace by Cordero Barr.

The final tie of the opening set came on a kill by Akgul to make it 21-21.

Leading 23-22, UNO scored the final two points of the set on a kill by Molly Kehoe and an attack error by Akgul.

The second set was tied 11-11 before UNO scored seven-straight points off the serve of Cordeo Barr. She had three of her game-high six service aces during the spree.

With UNO leading 24-19, Nicholls came up with the final point of the set on a service error by Defne Eciroglu of the Privateers before a kill by UNO’s Buse Kocakaya ended the game at 25-20.

The final set was all UNO.

Leading 7-4, the Privateers ran off seven-straight points to take a commanding 14-4 lead.

Following a kill by Sydney Gott, Rita Zecchin went to the service line for UNO. Two more kills by Gott, a Zecchin service ace, two kills by Cordero Barr and an attack error by Bolden contributed the run,

The closest the Lady Colonels could get the remainder of the set was eight points at 16-8 on a service ace by Rae Leano.

Leading 24-13, UNO closed out the match on an attack error by Phares.

Kocakaya led UNO with 12 kills and Courtney Roundtree 10. Roundtree also led the team with four block assists. Eciroglu had 31 assists for the Privateers.

Nicholls closes out the season at 1 p.m. Saturday at Houston Christian.