This past weekend the Women’s volleyball team came in third place in the Fairfield Inn & Suites Tournament at McNeese State University. Head coach Alicia Pete said, “No team is a challenge for us, we just have to work hard and play aggressively.”
The schools who competed in the tournament were McNeese State University, University of New Orleans and Northwestern State University.
The Lady Panthers went in with a more aggressive attitude than they had at their last game and started the tournament with back-to-back games that lasted six hours. During the first two sets of the first game, the Lady Panthers were on fire and were in control of the pace of the game. The ladies closed out the set 26-24. NSU Lady Demons gave the Lady Panthers a hard time in the third and fourth set and won the last set 15-11.
On Saturday, the Lady Panthers played the host McNeese who had a 2-0 record coming into the match. In the first set both teams were trading off the lead.
McNeese began to really take the lead and the Lady Panthers could not catch up fast enough to beat the Cowgirls. The McNeese Cowgirls beat the Lady Panthers, -3-0 (25-18, 25-19, 25-16).
Seniors Cheri Lindsay and Erin Fondal helped lead the Lady Panther volleyball team earn a third place victory. Lindsay led the attack with 13 kills and 10 digs. Fondal also helped out with 33 assists, three kills, seven digs and three total blocks.
Both Lindsay and Fondal were both chosen by the All Tournament team. On Saturday in the closing match of the day, the Lady Panthers faced the University of New Orleans with eager attitude to win because they refused to come home without a win. The UNO Pirates came out strong owning the first set but the Lady Panthers came back ten times stronger and won with a 3-2 victory.
The Lady Panthers next tournament will be Sept. 17- 19 at UTA.