NEW ORLEANS -- Middle blocker Kerris Crier celebrated her senior day by producing eight kills Friday in Xavier University of Louisiana's 25-16, 25-11, 25-16 women's volleyball victory against Avila.
The Gold Nuggets (16-7) extended their school-record win streak to 10. They've won nine in a row at home, also an XU record.
It was the second of two matches at the Convocation Center in a tournament co-hosted by Xavier and Loyola. Mobile defeated Avila 25-13, 25-7, 25-15 in the other match. The tournament will shift to Loyola's facility, The Den, on Saturday. The Wolf Pack will play Avila at 10 a.m. and Xavier at 2 p.m.
Crier -- the first to play four seasons of volleyball at Xavier and the sole survivor among four freshmen who were on the roster when the program resumed in 2010 -- recorded her second-most kills in a match this season and was one short of her career high. She produced half her kills in the second set and ended the match with a kill.
Crier hit .261 in 23 attempts and had a solo block, an assist and four digs. She served flawlessly in 12 attempts. Crier's mother and father attended the match, as did a grandmother, aunt and uncle.
Taylor Reuther had nine kills, seven in the third set, for Xavier. Chinedu Echebelem had eight kills and hit .400, and Claudia Haywood had seven kills and hit .462.
Anna Woods had eight kills, six assists and five digs for Avila (6-18).
After the Eagles' Stephanie Gordon opened the match with a kill, Xavier scored eight of the next nine points and closed the first set on a Reuther kill. Crier, Echebelem and Haywood had two kills apiece in a 16-5 run to open the second set.
Reuther had two kills in a 7-0 run to begin the third set, but Avila answered with seven consecutive points, the last two on kills by Woods. Haywood put Xavier ahead to stay with a kill on the next rally, and the Gold Nuggets led 22-14 after an 8-2 run.
Reuther raised her career total of kills to 997. Haywood continued her hot hitting, surpassing .390 for the sixth time in the last seven matches.
Xavier outhit Avila .262 to minus-.040 -- .365 to minus-.063 in the final two sets -- and had advantages of 41-18 in kills and 71-47 in digs. CeCe Williams had 11 digs for the Nuggets, and Echebelem and Darian Harris had eight apiece.
The Gold Nuggets will try to complete a three-match season sweep of Loyola aft
er losing all 11 of their meetings with their city rival in their previous five seasons. Xavier's next home match will start at 7 p.m. Monday against SUNO.
By Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director
XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA
XULAATHLETICS
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