Gold Nuggets notch their 60th consecutive home victory in conference

NEW ORLEANS — Xavier University of Louisiana women’s volleyball completed a two-match Red River Athletic Conference sweep of Texas College with a 25-3, 25-19, 25-11 victory Saturday at the University of New Orleans Human Performance Center.

The beat goes on for the Gold Nuggets, whose active streaks include:

• 60 consecutive victories in regular-season conference home matches . . . The last loss was in five sets to SUNO at The Barn on Sept. 7, 2010, when XULA was a member of the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference. XULA joined the RRAC in July 2021.
• 15 consecutive victories in RRAC regular-season matches.
• 24 consecutive sets won in the RRAC regular season.

Also current for XULA is a seven-match win streak. The Gold Nuggets are 8-2 overall, 4-0 RRAC and share the top spot with Our Lady of the Lake. At 2-0 in the RRAC are Louisiana Christian and Jarvis Christian.

“We’ve started conference play with some nice wins,” XULA head coach Pat Kendrick said. “We’re looking forward to our upcoming matches against Huston-Tillotson on the road.”

Stella Dineva hit .462 with seven kills for XULA. Kennedy Wade had six kills, three aces and eight digs. Angela Egonu hit .357 with six kills, two blocks and five digs. Linda Mungai had 19 digs, and she and Sydney Murray served two aces apiece.

Also contributing for XULA were Maya Smith with four kills and two blocks — she hit .429 in both matches Saturday — and Emi Riglioni with 13 assists and an ace.

After needing just 13 minutes to win the first set, the Gold Nuggets struggled in the second set before a 12-4 run erased the Lady Steers’ 15-13 lead.

Tatiyanna Fuller has five kills, one block and nine digs for Texas College (0-7, 0-4), whose RRAC losing streak is 17 matches and overall losing streak is 21. The Lady Steers are 8-167 over their last nine seasons.

This is the fourth time in XULA’s 15 seasons that the Gold Nuggets started 8-2 or better. Kendrick’s first team in 2017 was 9-1; the other 8-2 starts were in 2011 and 2014.

XULA will travel to Austin, Texas, and play Huston-Tillotson at 6 p.m. Friday and noon Saturday. The Lady Rams (3-7, 2-2), the only team to beat XULA in the RRAC, got swept this week at Louisiana Christian.