NEW ORLEANS — Our Lady of the Lake buckled itself into the driver's seat of the Red River Athletic Conference women's volleyball race with a 28-26, 25-21, 25-15 victory Sunday against Xavier University of Louisiana.
        The Saints (16-4 overall, 12-0 RRAC) completed a two-match sweep of the Gold Nuggets (15-7, 10-2). OLLU's magic number to win the RRAC regular-season championship is three. Both teams have four league matches remaining.
        Mia Dorsey had 11 kills for the second straight day, and Camila Ramirez and Julissa Casas served four aces apiece for OLLU, which has won 11 in a row.
        Kennedy Wade had 13 kills and hit .400 for XULA, and Maya Smith and Kendall Mack had three blocks apiece. XULA lost its last five matches — the Gold Nuggets' longest skid since August 2016.
        OLLU outhit XULA .191 to .175 and had advantages of 39-34 in kills and 11-3 in aces.
        XULA led 24-21 in the first set and served a couple of set points in overtime, but the Saints rallied after a 26-25 deficit on a Dorsey kill — her eighth of the set — a Ramirez ace and a set-ending attack error.
        In the second set an OLLU 12-4 run — Ramirez sparked it with three kills and an ace — erased XULA's 9-8 lead. A block by Mack and Alyssa Studvent got the Gold Nuggets as close as 22-19, but three XULA errors and Dorsey's clinching kill gave OLLU a two-set lead.
        The final set was the Saints' most dominant of the weekend. They scored nine of the final 12 points and closed with a Ramirez kill, then an ace by Lauren Reynard.
        It's the first time the Gold Nuggets lost two league matches in a row since 2010, when XULA was a Gulf Coast Athletic Conference member. This is XULA's second year in the RRAC.
        "This stinks," Wade said. "We need to evaluate these matches and work to get better. I think we're going to see (OLLU) again."
        A XULA-OLLU rematch could occur in the RRAC Tournament, a six-team event which the Gold Nuggets will host Nov. 11-12.
        Next for XULA will be its third trip this season to Texas. The Gold Nuggets will play RRAC matches in Dallas at Paul Quinn — 6 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. Saturday — then bus south to nearby Waxahachie for a 3 p.m. Saturday non-conference match at SAGU, which is 24-0 and ranked ninth in the NAIA.
        Sunday's match was XULA's eighth this season at its temporary home, the University of New Orleans Human Performance Center. The most recent estimate is that work on the installation of a replacement floor at XULA's Convocation Center will be completed by Friday (Oct. 28). That would allow the Gold Nuggets' regular-season finale — a 4 p.m. Nov. 4 RRAC doubleheader against Louisiana Christian — to be played at XULA.