NEW ORLEANS — Kayla Black and Vivica Price-Spraggins combined for 29 kills Monday to lead Xavier University of Louisiana to a 25-11, 25-15, 25-20 Gulf Coast Athletic Conference volleyball victory against Edward Waters.
     The Gold Nuggets (22-6, 12-0) won their fourth in a row. They'll play the GCAC's other unbeaten team, Tougaloo, at 3:30 p.m. Thursday in XULA's Convocation Center. Admission will be free for all.
     XULA and Tougaloo are closing the regular season with consecutive matches against each other. The second will start at 1 p.m. Sunday at Tougaloo, Miss. Thursday's match at XULA is a makeup; it was postponed Sept. 4 because of weather and Oct. 15 because of Tougaloo transportation issues.
     Black had 16 kills and hit .433 in 30 attacks, and Price-Spraggins had 13 kills, six in the opening set. Teammate Angele McClain had eight kills — her second most in a match this season — and hit .500 in 16 attacks.
     Eva Le Guillou had 34 assists and served two aces for the Gold Nuggets. Beatrice Formilan had 13 digs and Taylor Ducros 12. McClain and Elena Duru had two blocks apiece.
     Maurica Marsh and Kaitlyn Shaw had five kills apiece for the Lady Tigers (11-10, 7-6), who dropped their third in a row. Katarina Ribar had 18 assists, 11 digs and four aces.
     XULA trailed 7-6 in the first set before scoring 10 consecutive points, then closed with a 10-2 run in the second set. The Gold Nuggets opened the third set with a 7-1 run and withstood an Edward Waters 5-0 surge that cut the margin to 19-17.
     XULA outhit Edward Waters .321 to .074 — the 14th time this season that the Nuggets reached .300 — but the Lady Tigers had advantages of 5-3 in aces and 44-41 in digs. XULA outblocked Edward Waters 4-1.