On the evening of Thursday, Sept. 5, the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns walked into the Fertitta Center in Houston, Texas for their first match of the annual Flo Hyman Classic. It would be Louisiana and Houston’s first head-to-head since 2018. The Cajuns had only beaten the Cougars once in team history back in 2014.
In a Sept. 2 press conference, Head Coach Kristi Gray previewed the matchup.
“I think it will be good to go on the road. We play two good teams this weekend, Houston has a great team in the Big XII, they had a run in the Tournament last year, they’re going to be competitive, and then Northwestern State, they are in-state, they’re going to give us a good match,” Gray said.
Regarding newcomers to the team, Gray spoke about how she’s been working on how best to incorporate their talents to best fit the team.
“We talked about just trusting the process, I sent them a little quote this morning again, it’s a Henry Ford quote, it talks about, whenever everything seems to be going against you, remember a plane takes off into the wind,” Gray said. “Trying to remember or remind the team that right now, we do need to trust the process.”
“In tight situations, we’re having to look for freshmen to make big plays and they don’t have the experience right now,” Gray said.
Gray spoke glowingly of her veteran defender Cami Hicks in the interview and how she serves as the engine for the team’s blocking potential. Hicks put up a career-high 13 blocks against the Murray State Racers on Aug. 31 to help win the match.
“Oh my gosh, Cami is a phenomenal defender. Her at the net, she is so impressive, and I didn’t realize where we were in blocks, where she was in blocks until afterwards my associate head coach Jasmine Johnson said, ‘Cami had 12 blocks.’”
“I was looking at the stats sheet and I said, ‘She had 13.’ She was like, ‘That’s a career high for her,’ which is so impressive,” Gray said.
“I think it’s not only who she is, but she has great pins that are setting that block for her, so I think that there’s a lot that plays into it.
“We’ve had a lot going on and we are doing a lot of things well, but there is a lot that we need to improve on, but the most important thing for us right now is just preparing for conference.”
The second match of the classic on Sept. 6 featured a matchup between the Cajuns and the Northwestern State Demons. Gaston and Demps again took over offensively, leading the team with 19 and 17 kills respectively.
Hawkins played the full game, again leading the Cajuns in assists, and sophomore Abby Cunningham provided an extra boost with eight kills of her own. The Cajuns lost in a competitive match, 23–25, 19–25, 26–24, 23–25.
Next up, the Cajuns will feature in the Texas A&M Invitational starting against the New Hampshire Wildcats on Friday, Sept. 13.
