OXFORD, Mississippi — Little Rock will look to end its weekend on a high note after suffering back-to-back losses Saturday during the Ole Miss Invitational at the Gillom Athletics Performance Center. The Trojans dropped to 5-4 this season after 3-0 losses to both Florida Gulf Coast and Drake, leaving Little Rock to try and snap a four-game slide Sunday when it faces host Ole Miss tomorrow at 2 pm. The match can be streamed live on SECN+.
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"We had some bright areas against Drake … Polianna [Hernandez] off the bench and Bella [Cherry] offensively. We struggled with blocking and did not serve receive very well. In the first match, Jeila [Fullerton] had a great game and Bella added positives to our offense, but our serve receive and blocking was not as strong as usual." — Little Rock head coach Van Compton
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FGCU 3, Little Rock 0
The Trojans opened with a Saturday morning match against Florida Gulf Coast (7-1), falling by scores of 25-20, 25-15, and 25-22. Little Rock hit just .077 in each of the first two sets and .144 for the match with a season-low 38 points.
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Kaila Harris led the offense with 10 kills,
Jeila Fullerton had eight on .304 attacking,
Dariana Valencia finished with 15 assists (and two aces) and
Kaylee Smith added 10. Fullerton led the team with 10 digs as well as two blocks,
Andrea Roman had eight digs and Harris added seven. Cherry also had two blocks.
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Drake 3, Little Rock 0
The Trojan attack struggled again in the afternoon session, hitting just .129 against Drake (2-6) while falling short by scores of 25-20, 25-19, and 25-19. Cherry finished with a team-high 10 kills, Hernandez was second with eight, Fullerton added six and Harris had five along with
Sophia Garrido. Valencia had a team-high 22 assists and Smith added 14.
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Defensively, the Trojans were led by Roman's 14 digs, Smith had 10 to complete a double-double and Garrido had two blocks. Valencia fell one dig short of a double-double but totaled nine for the match. Fullerton finished with eight digs.
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