Box Score DURHAM, N.C. – Ashley Muench (Hurdle Mills, N.C./Orange) and Jessica Brezwyn (Darien, Ill./Hinsdale South) combined for 28 kills in a four-set loss to the LSU Tigers on Saturday afternoon inside Cameron Indoor Stadium at the Duke Invitational. UNCG falls to 0-2 on the season, while LSU improves to 2-0.
Muench led UNCG with 16 kills in the match, hitting at a .157 clip on 51 attacks. Brezwyn added 12 kills and a .286 hitting percentage. Jasmine Jones (Stafford, Va./Brooke Point) and Alexis Mourier (Elkview, W.Va.) each recorded nine kills, while Mourier posted a team-best .571 percentage in the match. Christina Gregory (Louisville, Ky./Sacred Heart Academy) recorded 24 digs, a new career-high. Sara Hohman (Zionsville, Ind./Cathedral) led the offense with 47 assists, and added 12 digs in the contest. Muench recorded her second double-double in as many matches, earning 11 digs.
The Spartans took the first set of the match by a score of 25-22. After a 3-0 LSU run tied the game up at 15 all, UNCG used a run of their own to take back the lead at 20-17 on a kill from. LSU and UNCG were back and forth for the final points of the match, after a kill from LSU's Gina Tillis cut the lead to 23-22 Spartans. A kill from Lauren Robeck (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield North) brought the score to set point before an attack error on Tillis gave the Blue and Gold the first set.
LSU came back and took set two by a 25-20 tally. UNCG held a two point lead until LSU went on a 6-1 run to take a 19-16 lead. A kill from Chinwendu Ngwadom (Raleigh, N.C./Chicago State) provided some energy as the Spartans put together back-to-back kills to slow the Tiger momentum. LSU continued to hammer way, earning three kills and taking advantage of three Spartan errors to close the match on a 6-2 run.
In the third set, LSU went on a 5-1 run, getting from kills by Khourtni Fears and Jariel Tureaud to go up 16-11. UNCG used a run of their own to cut the lead to two. Robeck came up with a big kill after a hard fought volley. Jones followed with another kill to trim the lead to 18-16 Tigers, forcing an LSU timeout. Back-to-back kills from Mourier cut the lead to one at 20-19 before LSU closed the match out on a 5-1 run to earn the third set.
UNCG came out hot in the fourth set, earning an 8-4 lead. Kills from Jones, Mourier, Brezwyn and Robeck helped power the Spartan attack. LSU used an 11-2 run to take an 18-12 lead later in the match, earning eight kills and a pair of service aces in the process. The Spartans pulled within four but were unable to mount a comeback, falling 25-19 in the fourth set.
The Spartans are back in action on Saturday evening as they take on the Eastern Kentucky Colonels at 5:30 p.m. in the final match of the Duke Invitational.
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