Little Rock wraps up regular season, enters OVC Championship as No. 6 seed

After dropping both matches in the final regular season series to Lindenwood, Little Rock will head into the OVC Championship next week as the No. 6 seed. The Trojans will face No. 3 Tennessee Tech at 1 pm Sunday in the quarterfinal round of the tournament hosted by Southeast Missouri in Cape Girardeau, Mo.
 
Wednesday's regular season finale ended after just three sets with the Trojans (16-15 overall, 11-7) falling in straight sets at the Jack Stephens Center. Lindenwood (20-10, 14-4) secured the No. 2 seed with the win, by scores of 26-24, 25-18 and 25-21.
 
A'lanae Margaritha led the Trojan offense with eight kills and hit a team-best .471. She also led the defense with five blocks. Jeila Fullerton had seven kills, Bella Cherry added six to go with two blocks and Kaila Harris put down six kills with 14 digs. Dariana Valencia (18 assists, 13 digs) and Kaylee Smith (13 assists) set up the Little Rock attack.
 
Helping on the defensive side were Andrea Roman (14 digs), Polianna Hernandez (three blocks) and Jaycee Kennedy (two blocks). Hernandez had all three of her blocks in the third set.
 
Little Rock trailed early in the first set (9-5) but rallied to take a 14-13 lead. They trailed again (20-17) and rallied again to retake the lead at 24-21, before Lindenwood reeled off five consecutive points to win the set. Margaritha posted five kills and three blocks in the set and Valencia had half of her 18 assists in the same frame.
 
The Trojans were unable to gain any ground in the second set, hitting just .053 while falling behind by as much as eight down the stretch. Cherry and Fullerton each had three kills but Little Rock was unable to close the gap any closer than four points. It appeared as if the Trojans would bounce back in the third, taking an early 10-6 lead, but Lindenwood closed it out with a pair of lengthy runs.