NEW ORLEANS — Freshman Taylor Parker starred as a hitter, blocker and server Friday to help Xavier University of Louisiana earn a 25-18, 26-24, 25-17 Red River Athletic Conference women's volleyball victory against Huston-Tillotson.
        The Gold Nuggets (12-4 overall, 9-0 RRAC) have won nine straight.
        XULA — which leads the RRAC by a match over Our Lady of the Lake and Texas A&M-Texarkana — and Huston-Tillotson will meet at noon Saturday to conclude their two-match series.
        Parker, a 6-foot-2 middle blocker, hit .750 — 12 kills and zero errors in 16 attacks — and produced match highs of three aces and six blocks.
        Kennedy White had 10 kills, two aces, two blocks and nine digs for the Rams (4-11, 3-4).
        XULA won for 65th consecutive time in a regular-season conference match on its campus. The streak began Oct. 23, 2010, in the Gold Nuggets' previous home, The Barn.
        Stella Dineva and Kennedy Wade had 13 kills apiece for XULA. Dineva hit .417, and Wade hit .321. XULA outhit Huston-Tillotson .344 to .044, and in the final two sets Parker hit .909 — 10 kills and zero errors in 11 attacks. But despite those numbers, XULA surrendered its most points, 59, in a conference match on its campus since 2019.
        Parker is the second Gold Nugget and the first freshman in the program's 16-year history to hit .750 or higher with 15-or-more attempts. Juliana Tomasoni hit .778 — 14 kills, zero errors, 18 attacks — at home against Philander Smith during her senior season, 2017.