No. 3 Arkansas State Pounces on No. 6 UL Lafayette To Advance

SAN MARCOS, Texas – No. 3 Arkansas State pounced on No. 6 UL Lafayette early on their way to a three set sweep in the quarterfinals of the Sun Belt Championship on Thursday at Strahan Coliseum.

Sarah Kemp started the match with two straight kills for Arkansas State, but UL Lafayette responded with four straight points including a Sara Mossakowski ace to take the lead. With the game tied at six, Arkansas State scored four straight points to prompt a Ragin’ Cajun timeout. Kelsey Reis added a couple kills for the Red Wolves as the UL Lafayette was unable to get any closer the rest of the set as The Red Wolves took the first set 25-15.

Hannah Robey started the second set with an ace and Arkansas State never trailed in the set. With the score tied at two, Jessica Uke smashed home a kill from the middle to start a three point run. When trailing 8-4, UL Lafayette scored four straight to tie up the game as setter Andrea Hole dropped a kill into the back. However, Drew Jones stopped that spurt by putting home Mallory Warrington’s assist. Later in the set, Arkansas State went on a 10-3 run to put the set away. Jones tallied four digs in the set while Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Year Markie Schaedig had seven digs.

UL Lafayette started the third set by scoring five of the first six points as Chanelle Gardner garnered three kills during that span. Arkansas State responded with five of the next six points to tie the game at six as Kari Castanon-Hill had two kills. The teams traded the next four points, but Drew Jones stuck two kills as part of a 4-0 spurt to put Arkansas State up 12-8. The Red Wolves closed out the game by scoring 13 of the next 20 points. Castanon-Hill finished with four third set kills as Arkansas State won the third frame 25-15.

Kemp led the way for Arkansas State as she had 10 kills despite hitting .109 for the game. Jones had finished with nine kills while Castanon-Hill had eight. Schaedig finished with 19 digs and Warrington notched 25 assists. Jessica Uke stuffed four solo blocks and three block assists as the Red Wolves held UL Lafayette to a -.066 hitting percentage.

Andrea Hole finished with 15 assists and 12 digs in her final collegiate game for UL Lafayette. Gardner and Mossakowski topped the Ragin’ Cajuns with six kills each. Caitlyn Auxilien had 13 digs in the losing effort.

Arkansas State moves on to the semifinals where they will face the winner of Thursday’s finale between No. 2 Texas State and No. 7 Georgia State. The semifinal will be at 6:30 p.m. (CT) at Strahan Coliseum in San Marcos, Texas. The game will be broadcast free of charge at www.sunbeltsports.org.