Little Rock completes sweep of SIUE, punches ticket to OVC Championships

The OVC Volleyball Championships will have a different look this year with the Little Rock Trojans set to make their first appearance in the conference tournament thanks to Thursday's ticket-punching win over SIEU at the Jack Stephens Center.
 
Little Rock (11-18, 8-10 OVC) completed a series sweep by scores of 25-17, 25-21, 17-25, and 25-18 to leapfrog the Cougars and secure the eighth and final seed in the tournament, which begins Monday. The Trojans will face top-seed and regular season champion Eastern Illinois on Monday at 1 pm in the opening round in Charleston, Ill., while the season ends for SIEU with a record of 13-16 and 7-11 in the OVC.
 
Little Rock will enter on a four-match win streak – its longest streak of the season – during which the Trojans moved from 10^th place into the eighth spot. The Trojans never trailed in the first, second, and fourth sets and sent seniors Daria Burrows and Zanobia Willis out in style.
 
Daedrianna Cail led the team with 11 kills on .529 percent hitting, adding six blocks – her ninth game of the season with six or more blocks. Bella Cherry and Jeila Fullerton each added nine kills and Jaycee Kennedy added seven kills, matching her career high.
 
Kaylee Smith led the team with 20 assists to go with seven digs and three aces.Dariana Valencia added 19 assists and six digs, while Andrea Roman set a new career-high with 31 digs to lead all players.
 
Little Rock established itself from the onset, hitting .407 in the opening set and adding four blocks on the defensive side. The led by as many as seven in the second frame and took advantage of 15 SIUE errors. The Cougars bounced back in set three to hit .268 and tally six blocks. But the Trojans hit .250 in the deciding set, getting at least two kills from six different players, including Arianna Escudero, who closed out the match with a pair of kills.