Box Score HAMMOND, La. – Battling Oral Roberts, statistically the top team in the Southland Conference, the Southeastern Louisiana volleyball team dropped a hard-fought, three-set match Saturday at the University Center, 25-16, 25-23, 25-21.
Southeastern (6-10, 0-4 Southland) held the Golden Eagles, the conference's most efficient attack team (.271 hitting percentage), to more than 75 points below their season average. ORU (12-2, 4-0 Southland) came into the match with the lowest opponent attack percentage as well and proved a tough defender against the Lady Lions.
Fighting through a sluggish offensive start, Southeastern played ORU statistically even in the second set. With six tie scores and five lead changes the momentum swung late in the second set. Coming out of a timeout down, 23-22, the Golden Eagles picked up consecutive kills from Jovana Poljasevic to bring them to set point and then wrapped up the set on the next serve.
Down two sets to none in the third, the Lady Lions fell behind by seven early, but freshman
Parrie Hartley came up with a kill to halt ORU. Hartley then served up four-consecutive points, including a pair of aces, to bring Southeastern within two.
After the Golden Eagles snapped the string, Southeastern came right back with three more points off kills by
Tiffany Thomas and
Landry Bullock to tie the score, 12-12. Back and forth for the next several points, ORU finally pulled ahead for good at 19-18 and held on to take the match.
Bullock (seven kills, one total block) and Thomas (seven kills) combined with
Mikayla Shippy (25 assists) to lead the Lady Lion offense. Despite being mere percentage points out of first in the Southland in blocking, Bullock combined with Bunn for Southeastern's only team block.
Morgan Todd led all players with 17 digs while
Brooke Balser and
Cherish Krohn each added 11.
Sara Pope and Luara Rosa led all offensive players with 11 kills apiece while Laura Taylor handed out 32 assists for the Golden Eagles. Bruna Silva (16 digs) and McKenna Qualls (10 digs) each recorded double-digit digs for ORU.
Southeastern returns to action Thursday at McNeese State. First serve is slate for 7 p.m. at Memorial Gym on the McNeese campus.
Oral Roberts def. Southeastern La. 25-16, 25-23, 25-21
Oral Roberts (12-2, 4-0) (Kills-aces-blocks) - Pope, Sara 11-0-2; Rosa, Luara 11-1-2; Poljasevic, Jovana 7-0-2; Qualls, McKenna 5-3-0; Taylor, Laura 4-1-0; Pancratz, Jessica 3-0-4; Mostahinic, Nika 1-0-0; Johnson, Kylie 0-1-0;
Totals 42-6-6.0. (Assists) - Taylor, Laura 32.
(Dig leaders) - Silva, Bruna 16; Qualls, McKenna 10; Johnson, Kylie 9
Southeastern La. (6-10, 0-4) (Kills-aces-blocks) - Thomas, Tiffany 7-0-0; Bullock, Landry 7-0-1; Turk, Veronica 4-0-0; Hartley, Parrie 4-2-0; Ramee, Elizabeth 2-0-0; Shippy, Mikayla 2-1-0; Bunn, Rachael 1-0-1; Balser, Brooke 1-0-0; McMillin, Megan 0-1-0;
Totals 28-4-1.0. (Assists) - Shippy, Mikayla 25.
(Dig leaders) - Todd, Morgan 17; Balser, Brooke 11; Krohn, Cherish 11
Site: Hammond, La. (University Center)
Date: Sep 28, 2013
Attend: 100
Time: 1:36
Referees: John Cline, Scott Thompson
