TROY, Ala. (TROJANVISION) — Troy Volleyball faced the University of Louisiana Monroe (ULM) Warhawks in a two-game home series on Thursday and Friday night.
The Trojans gave ULM a major scare Halloween night when they dominated the Warhawks three sets to none.
Coach Josh Lauer said about the win, “I think that we have been dealing with a few heartbreakers the last three matches, some really tough five-set losses, so it was good to kind of get that monkey off our back.”
The Trojans won the first set 25-23, then 25-21 in the second set, and the final set 25-23. However, ULM kept the pressure on Troy and threatened to take each one of the sets.
When it came to personal performances, Coach Lauer said, “Great contributions from Tori [Hester], Amiah [Butler], and Kalina [Calvillo] especially. They did a really nice job on the pins, scoring some points.”
Tori Hester continued her streak of double-digit kills, finishing with 19 Thursday night. However, freshman Calvillo stole the show, finishing with one block and 13 kills, starting a streak of four games in a row with double-digit kills. She gave all the credit, though, to the team around her.
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Calvillo said, “I think the biggest thing is just having amazing passers and setters that are able to feed me the ball. They are just amazing, and it is great to play with them.
The Trojans kept their momentum from Halloween night when they rolled into Friday. Troy seemingly circled the Warhawks, winning three sets to none for the second consecutive night.
“What we just talked about was that we played better tonight than we did yesterday,” Lauer said. “That’s really good momentum and shows some resiliency of our team.”
ULM struggled to maintain pressure on the Trojans as Troy won the first set 25-14, the second set 25-18, and the third set 25-16.
“That was another back-to-back team effort win,” Lauer told TrojanVision. “That’s really good for us as we move into these last few really important weeks.”
Hester continued her double-digit NCAA kill streak to 44 games and is only 53 kills away from program history, while Butler reached a milestone Friday night as she now has 1,000 career kills.
“For her to hit a thousand kills is, I think something that is a really cool personal thing for her,” Lauer said. “We don’t really keep track of that stuff, so it’s fun when they hit them. We had some good highlights this year, and that’s one of them.”
The Trojans will need to continue this winning streak as they finish out the season. They are currently in fourth place in their division with only the top five teams from each division going to the Sunbelt playoffs.
Hopefully, the momentum from last week will carry over to the Trojans’ away series in Hattiesburg, Mississippi when they take on Southern Miss. Troy will face the Golden Eagles on Thursday, Nov. 7 at 6 p.m.
