NEW ORLEANS — Kayla Black snuck a peek when she wasn't supposed to, but she turned it into a positive.The Xavier University of Louisiana junior outside hitter, aware she was close to a career day for kills, got nine in the final set Saturday to finish with a school-record 27 and help the Gold Nuggets secure a 26-24, 18-25, 25-23, 25-20 volleyball victory against Point in the Big Easy Blastoff at the Convocation Center.
Black also set a school record for attacks in a match with 71. Her 26 digs were a career high.
Between the third and fourth sets, Black saw the cumulative stats distributed to the coaches. She had 18 kills, and that gave her motivation and an idea.
"Coach (Pat Kendrick) doesn't want us looking at stats and letting them get in our head — whether they're good or bad," Black said. "I saw I had 18 kills and told (setter) Eva (Le Guillou), you want to go for a record? She said, 'let's do it'."
The Gold Nuggets, 8-3 and winner of seven of their last eight matches, needed every one of Black's fourth-set kills to hold off a Point team which battled XULA for nearly two hours.
Black broke the previous XULA record of 25 kills by Juliana Tomasoni in a four-set loss to Evangel Aug. 20, 2016. The old mark for attacks was 70 by Chinedu Echebelem in a five-set victory at SUNO Oct. 1, 2014.
XULA finished with 67 kills, its most ever in a home match and fifth-most ever at any venue. Zora Barnett and Vivica Price-Spraggins had 11 kills apiece, and Ema Causevic had six. Barnett hit .474. XULA had a season-high 97 digs, including career highs of 22 by Jennifer Torres and 18 by Causevic. Le Guillou and Price-Spraggins had four blocks apiece, and Le Guillou produced a career-high-tying 54 assists.
Rachael Ellis and Charlotte Havrisik had 15 kills apiece for Point, and Faith Pearson had 14. New Orleanian Julia Felix barely missed a triple-double; she had seven kills, 39 assists and 17 digs for the Skyhawks.
XULA outhit Point .251 to .210. The Gold Nuggets hit .315 in the final two sets.
It was the second straight year that XULA and Point played a marathon in the Big Easy Blastoff, XULA won in five sets in 2018 in a match that lasted two hours and seven minutes.
BOX SCORE
Ed Cassiere, Assistant Athletics Director for Communications
Department of Athletics & Recreation
XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA
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