JONESBORO, Ark. (10/28/11) – The Arkansas State volleyball team
remained undefeated at home this season with a 25-21, 25-19, 22-25, 25-17
victory over Louisiana-Lafayette on Friday night.
ASU (18-7, 9-2 SBC) won first two sets and went into the break after the
second set with a 2-0 lead. The Red Wolves looked poised to take the third set
as well and led 20-17 late in the set. However, the Rajin' Cajuns (10-17, 2-9)
closed the gap to 21-20, forcing A-State head coach Justin Ingram to take a
timeout. A kill by Cayla Fielder gave ASU a 22-20 lead, but ULL scored the set's
final five points to take the 25-22 win.
The Red Wolves responded in the third set and quickly pulled ahead for a
17-13 edge. Amanda Chaparro, Taylor Szypulski and A'Zlynn Thompson helped push
the lead to 22-14 with kills. Szypulski gave ASU a 23-15 lead with a kill and a
service error from the Rajin' Cajuns setup a match point opportunity for
A-State. Jasmine Terry put the set and match away on the next point to give the
Red Wolves a 3-1 match victory.
“I think coming in Lafayette did some things we weren't accustomed to
seeing and it took a little while for us to adjust,” Ingram said. “We were
giving to many points away the beginning of the match and we just needed to get
back to what we do well, which is a high offensive team that is low is error
and eventually we settled back into it and played pretty well.”
In the first set A-State never trailed was only briefly tied with ULL
early in the match. ASU hit for a .367 percentage in the first, while the Rajin'
Cajuns struggled and managed just a .240 percentage as the red Wolves pulled
away for the 25-21 victory. In the second set ASU hit for a .481 percentage,
while ULL managed just a .143 percentage. ASU had 15 kills as a team in the
second set and just two errors.
Fielder led the Red Wolves with 18 kills, while Szypulski added 14. A'Zlynn
Thompson had a career-high 26 assists and Allison Kearney added 24 assists.
Megan Baska turned in 20 digs, while Fielder added four blocks and Szypulski
finished with three.
The Red Wolves are now 7-0 at home this season and are looking to go
undefeated at home for the first time since 2004. ASU will play its final home
game of the season Sunday, Oct. 30 at 1 p.m. at the HPESS.
