Box Score
HAMMOND, La. – The Gold squad defeated the Green team, two sets to one, Wednesday in the Southeastern Louisiana volleyball program's annual preseason scrimmage.
Despite dropping the opening set, 25-21, the Gold squad fought back to take the final two sets by scores of 29-27 and 15-13. Sophomore Shelby Devlin and freshman Rachael Bunn led the Gold with eight and six kills, respectively, while libero Megan McMillin recorded 13 digs.
"I was impressed," coach Jim Smoot said. "I thought they did a lot of really good things, some very solid things. We'll tweak our offense a little and maybe our defensive positioning."
Tiffany Thomas, a sophomore transfer from Louisiana Tech, led the Green team with eight kills and recorded a match-high 14 digs. Junior Elizabeth Ramee (six kills) and freshman Landry Bullock (five kills) aided the offensive effort while sophomore Morgan Todd chipped in 13 digs for the Green.
Setters Mikayla Shippy and Brooke Balser, both sophomores, split time between both squads. Shippy finished with 22 total assists while Balser, a Ponchatoula native, posted 20.
"Brooke Balser did a great job setting, especially for someone who has never been in that role," Smoot said. "Cherish Krohn also handled playing right side well."
The Lady Lions open the regular season Friday at 11:30 a.m. against host Florida Atlantic (7-19 in 2012) in the FAU Invitational. The Lady Lions will also face Bethune-Cookman (5-28 in 2012) later in the day at 3:30 p.m., before finishing up the tournament Saturday at noon against Jacksonville (10-24 in 2012).
"Florida Atlantic looks like they'll be a tough opponent to open with, but I think we can hang with anybody," Smoot said.
Gold def. Green 21-25, 29-27, 15-13
Gold (1-0) (Kills-aces-blocks) - Devlin, Shelby 8-2-5; Bunn, Rachael 6-0-3; Grace, Lindsay 4-0-2; Hartley, Parrie 4-1-3; Rauch, Jessica 2-0-0; Balser, Brooke 1-1-1; McMillin, Megan 0-1-0; Totals 25-5-9.0. (Assists) - Balser, Brooke 14. (Dig leaders) - McMillin, Megan 13; Rauch, Jessica 8.
Green (0-1) (Kills-aces-blocks) - Thomas, Tiffany 8-3-1; Ramee, Elizabeth 6-2-0; Bullock, Landry 5-0-2; Shippy, Mikayla 2-1-1; Krohn, Cherish 2-2-0; Turk, Veronica 1-0-4; 6 1-0-0; 8 1-0-0; Todd, Morgan 0-2-0; Totals 26-10-6.0. (Assists) - Shippy, Mikayla 16. (Dig leaders) - Thomas, Tiffany 14; Todd, Morgan 13; Ramee, Elizabeth 9.
