Looking back at the 2023 Volleyball season, the Cajuns have persevered in each game. Volleyball season for the women ended with a record of 19-13. The team started off their season winning.
A combined 21 kills from Emery Judkins and Celeste Darling sparked the Ragin Cajuns’ teams come-from-behind (16-25, 25-14, 27-25) taking the win against Tulane. This game, Louisiana flipped the momentum over in the second set when Shyia Richardson served out the remainder of an 8-0 run that opened a 13-8 lead.
The Cajuns led by at least 5 points the rest of the way and began to pull away when back-to-back kills from Darling stretched the lead to 17-10.
As the season progressed, the Cajuns not only took wins, but they also earned a few losses.
They took their first loss by a reverse sweep against Mississippi State and claimed a 3-2 (21-25, 21-25, 25-14, 25-20, 15-13) win on Sunday, August 27 in the finale of the tournament at the Newell-Grissom building.
The Cajuns stormed out the gates with 30 kills in the opening 2-0 match, over the Bulldogs (3-0). It was highlighted by claiming the first four points of Set 1 and leading wire-to-wire. A pair of Shyia Richardson kills kicked off a 5-0 run that stretched the lead to 21-14 and allowed UL to separate from MSU.
As the season progressed, the Cajuns started to become more of a team which allowed for their chemistry to grow and really be shown on the court.
As the season continued, the Cajuns traveled to Jacksonville, Florida to compete in the UNF Invitational at the University of North Florida campus. The tournament started out with a win against Charlotte.
They outperformed Charlotte in a clean sweep (25-11, 25-15, 25-22) in their opening match. Louisiana (5-4) was decisively more efficient than Charlotte (4-3) committing only six attack errors and hitting .309 (35 K, 6 E, 94 TA), and used its defense to force the 49ers into 25 attack errors and a .068 hitting percentage.
The Cajuns dominated at the service line with an 8-3 edge in aces and on the frontline by out blocking the 49ers by a 7-1 count UL held a 53-48 edge in digs paced by four players with at least nine digs.
However, in their second match it was North Florida making the final move to fend off the Cajuns and post a 3-2 (25-18, 25-20, 21-25, 23-25, 15-12) win on Friday, September 8.
The last of the 28 ties and 16 lead changes in the match pulled UNF out of a 10-9 deficit in the winner-take-all fifth set. The late reversal turned away the Cajuns (5-5) who had earlier used the combination of kills from Mya Wilson and Lauryn Hill to forge ahead 7-3.
They made up for that loss in their final match, closing out with a 3-0 (25-16, 25-23, 25-15) win over Texas Southern on Saturday, September 9.
Darling was the spark plug for a Cajuns offense that hummed along at a rate of 16-plus kills per set in collecting the sweep. Louisiana (6-5) found the floor for 49 kills on 106 swings at a .368 percentage (49 K, 10 E, 106 TA).
The win over Texas Southern (0-10) marked a successful conclusion to UL’s season opening, 11-match road stretch.
Throughout the season, the Cajuns continued to progress immensely. They ended their season off with a win against App State 3-2 (12-25, 25-16, 25-16, 16-25, 15-8) and a sendoff for their seniors.
Junior Shyia Richardson and sophomore Lauryn Hill scored three kills apiece to carry the load in Set 5 and helped ensure that the Cajuns would send their seniors off with a win in their final match at home.
Overall, the Ragin Cajuns Volleyball team had a successful 2023 season. The Cajuns look forward to a greater season and a successful continuous future for the 2024 season!