Offense Shines As MT Rolls Past La Tech

Friday, November 7

Ruston, La.

7:00 p.m.

Middle Tennessee

-819, 49 CUSA

LA Tech

-918, 112 CUSA

Team	1	2	3	Final F
Middle Tennessee St.	25	25	25	3
La Tech	22	20	18	0

11/7/2014 9:10:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

RUSTON, La. – The Middle Tennessee volleyball team (8-19, 4-9 C-USA) swept past Louisiana Tech (9-18, 1-12 C-USA) Friday evening at the Thomas Assembly Center.

The Blue Raiders hit a season-high .319 in the win while junior Chelsea Ross paced MT with 11 kills, and sophomores Jazmyne Johnson and Miri Shade each pitched in with eight kills. Freshman Haley Morton notched a team-high 20 assists while freshman Jacqueline Lux led with 10 digs.

With the win, head coach Matt Peck is one win shy of his 200^th career-victory at Middle Tennessee.

"Our offense was well distributed and I was happy with our ball control. I thought Jazmyne (Johnson) and Chelsea (Ross) had a big match for us," said Head coach Matt Peck. "I like how we played in this match, and we were very aggressive from the start."

Middle Tennessee hit a blistering .441 in the first set with the help of Ross and Johnson combining for 10 kills along with a .421 hitting clip to push MT to the 25-22 game-one win.

The Blue Raiders strung together a 7-3 run with the set tied, 8-8, to take a commanding 15-11 lead.The Lady Techsters closed the gap to two, 24-22, but MT stopped the comeback thanks to Senior Monét Marshall's kill to give the Blue Raiders a 1-0 lead.

Set two belonged to the Blue Raiders from start to finish as they would go up 11-4 after a combined block from senior Eseta Maka and freshman LaDaisha Gillard.
MT went up by as much as seven, 21-14, before the Lady Techsters made things interesting with a 6-2 run to cut the deficit to three, 23-20. Over the next two rallies, a Ross kill and block assists from Johnson and Gillard put the Blue Raiders ahead 2-0 going into the third set.

Another hot start was in store for the Blue Raiders as they went ahead, 5-1, thanks to two blocks by Gillard, kills by Ross and Shade and an attack error. La Tech tied the set, 12-12, but MT went on another 5-1 run to go up, 17-12, and stayed in front the rest of the way en route to completing the sweep 25-20.

The Blue Raiders will look to complete the weekend 2-0 with a 1 p.m., match on Sunday against UAB. Sunday's match will mark the final home game of the season and will honor seniors Eseta Maka, Monet Marshall and Ailime de Freitas for senior day.