LAFAYETTE, La. ?  The South Alabama women’s volleyball team was swept by Louisiana-Lafayette 3-0 (23-30, 30-32, 17-30) Saturday afternoon in Sun Belt Conference action at Earl K. Long Gym.  The loss for USA was its ninth straight.

The Lady Jags (5-14, 0-7 SBC) will next head to New Orleans to close out their three-match road swing Monday night at 7 p.m.

The Ragin’ Cajuns (6-12, 3-4 SBC) came out in the opener and took the lead from the beginning, grabbing the first point on a Jamie Sinegal kill.  USA did manage to fight back and after ULL held a 23-16 advantage, the Jags took five of the next six points to cut the deficit to 24-21.  Louisiana-Lafayette, however, closed game one on a 6-2 run and Kim Rodgers capped off the 30-23 win with her fourth kill of the opener.

In game two, USA held the early advantage, leading by three, until Sinegal and Kim Rodgers combined on a block to tie the contest back up at 7-7.  South Alabama then reeled off four consecutive points to lead 11-7, but after a Cajun time out, Sinegal ignited a 12-1 run with another kill.  USA ended the ULL scoring spurt when Colleen Downey dropped in a kill of her own from the back row.  Trailing 24-17, the Lady Jags began to mount a rally and took eight of the next nine points to tie the contest up at 25-all.  For the remainder of the match, the two clubs went back-and-forth splitting points.  Lauren Robbins gave USA its first lead of the night at 30-29 with her ninth kill of the game, but it was not to be for the Jags, as ULL took the final three points to go up 2-0 in the match with the 32-30 victory.

Coming out of the intermission, Louisiana-Lafayette raced out to an early 7-1 lead in the finale and never looked back.  Jennifer Johnson was able to cut the deficit to three (8-5) with her fourth kill of the day, but that was as close as USA would get the remainder of the match, as ULL went on to lead by as many as 11 on two occasions before capturing game three 30-17.  In the finale, the Ragin’ Cajuns out-hit the Jags .353 to .050.

Robbins led South Alabama with a match-high 12 kills, while Rodgers and Rachel Mauti finished with 11 and 10 kills, respectively for Louisiana-Lafayette.  On the defensive side of the net, Jade Nuss led three Jags in double figures with 14 digs, while Johnson had two solo blocks and two block assists for USA.