Big Easy Blastoff produces many XU facility records

NEW ORLEANS — It was a record-setting two days at the Big Easy Blastoff, the season-opening women's volleyball tournament that Xavier University of Louisiana hosted.
    
By tournament's end, the six schools combined to set or tie 17 Convocation Center records in 10 matches. A few highlights:
    
•  Shahala Hawkins of NAIA No. 19 Wayland Baptist broke the facility record for kills in a match twice Friday. She had 24 in a victory against Mobile in the morning, then blasted 28 more in the afternoon in a victory against Faulkner. Both matches lasted four sets. Hawkins, a senior, was first-team NAIA All-America in 2014.
    
•  Hawkins produced a Convocation Center-record nine blocks Saturday in a sweep of Loyola. Her six blocks against Xavier matched the most by an XU opponent.

 •  Seven times the facility record for digs in a match was tied or broken, with Loyola's Breanna Stevenson earning the mark when she had 34 in the final match, a five-set Wolf Pack victory against Mississippi Valley State.


    
The Convocation Center opened in November 2012 and became the site of XU home matches in 2013. It was the first time that the Gold Nuggets played host to their own tournament.
    
Xavier didn't set any records, but senior CeCe Williams produced a pair of kill-dig double-doubles — as many as she produced her previous three seasons.
    
Next for the Gold Nuggets (2-2) will be four matches in the Mariner Invitational at Brunswick, Ga.

They'll play Friday against Bethel (Ind.) at 9 a.m. EDT and NAIA No. 20 Coastal Georgia at 1 p.m.

The Gold Nuggets' next home match will be their Gulf Coast Athletic Conference opener, 7 p.m. Sept. 7 against Talladega.
    
Here are all the Convocation Center records set or tied Friday and Saturday:

Individual
Kills:  28 — Shahala Hawkins, Wayland Baptist, vs. Faulkner
Attacks:  73 — Shahala Hawkins, Wayland Baptist, vs. Faulkner
Aces by an Opponent:  4 — Nicole Armstrong, Mobile, vs. Wayland Baptist
Aces by an XU Opponent:  3 — Nicole Armstrong, Mobile (tied mark)
Blocks:  9 — Shahala Hawkins, Wayland Baptist, vs. Loyola
Blocks by an XU Opponent:  6 — Shahala Hawkins, Wayland Baptist (tied mark)

Team
Kills by an Opponent:  64 — Loyola vs. Mississippi Valley State
Kills by an XU Opponent:  61 — Mobile
Hitting Percentage by an XU Opponent:  .299 — Wayland Baptist
Attacks:  214 — Wayland Baptist vs. Faulkner
Aces:  9 — Faulkner vs. Mississippi Valley State and Mobile vs. Wayland Baptist
Aces by an XU Opponent:  7 — Mobile (tied mark)
Digs:  104 — Wayland Baptist vs. Faulkner
Blocks by an Opponent:  64 — Mississippi Valley State vs. Loyola
Blocks by an XU Opponent:  10 — Wayland Baptist
Most Errors by an Opponent:  51 — Loyola vs. Mississippi Valley State
Fewest Errors by an XU Opponent:  22 — Faulkner and Wayland Baptist

Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director
XULAgold.com
XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA 
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