Tournament schedule
Box score
NEW ORLEANS — Second-seeded Xavier University of
Louisiana rallied Saturday afternoon for a 17-25, 25-17, 22-25, 25-23, 19-17 women's volleyball victory
against top-seeded Our Lady of the Lake in the championship match of the Red River Athletic Conference Tournament.
For the 13th consecutive season the Gold Nuggets (19-7) won
a conference tournament and an automatic bid to NAIA nationals. The NAIA will announce the 48
qualifiers and first-round pairings at 2 p.m. CST Monday.
For the second straight year XULA climbed out of a huge
fifth-set hole against OLLU. This time the Gold Nuggets trailed 13-8 and saved two match points
before clinching the title on an attack error by the Saints' Madalyn Gonzalez.
"I was very, very nervous," said senior outside hitter
Kennedy Wade, a third-team NAIA All-American in 2022, of XULA's perilous
approach toward defeat. "But we also trust each other. We knew we could make plays. I'm proud of what we did to come back and win."
Wade scored three of the next five points
— including a serve that hit the tape and dropped in front of OLLU defenders for an ace —
to tie the set at 13.
Sydney Murray saved an OLLU match point when her kill tied it at 14,
and the Saints missed on their other match point when Mia Dorsey served wide of the court at 17-16.
Wade's kill gave XULA an 18-17 lead, then Gonzalez's error
ended the two-hour, 22-minute thriller.
Taylor Parker, a 6-foot-2 XULA freshman, was chosen tournament
MVP after hitting .455 against OLLU with 18 kills, a career high, and six blocks. Teammates
Ruxandra Flueras and Wade
joined Parker on the seven-member all-tournament team.
"I got a lot of support and love yesterday, and it really
impacted me today," Parker said. "I was ballin' out there. My slide hitting was the best it's ever been."
In the final Flueras produced 30 digs, two aces and four assists,
and Wade had 16 kills, 26 digs, an ace and two blocks.
Also contributing for XULA were Murray with 10 kills, two aces, a block
and eight digs,
Bengisu Kazazlar with two kills, four blocks, 14 digs and 51 assists,
Stella Dineva
with 16 kills, an ace and three blocks,
Charity Metcalf with eight digs, and
Kendall Mack with six blocks and two kills.
XULA had a 60-42 lead in total errors but compensated with
advantages of 64-51 in kills and 93-78 in digs. OLLU outhit XULA .137 to .127.
A year ago in the RRAC Tournament final at XULA, the Gold Nuggets
rallied from a 13-9 deficit in the fifth — OLLU never reached match point — and won 16-14.
XULA is 3-0 in RRAC Tournament finals, all against the Saints. XULA won 10 consecutive
Gulf Coast Athletic Conference tournaments from 2011-20.
Also earning all-tournament were
OLLU's Dorsey and Gonzalez,
Leah Stamps of Louisiana Christian and Katherine Toftemark of Texas A&M-Texarkana.
In the final Dorsey had 17 kills, four blocks and nine digs, and Gonzalez had four
kills and five blocks.
The previous week OLLU won twice at home against XULA to clinch the
RRAC regular-season championship by a match over the Gold Nuggets.
