HAMMOND, La. – The Southeastern Louisiana University volleyball team rallied from a tough first set to win the next three sets to remain undefeated at home and completed the season sweep of the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders 3-1 (15-25, 25-13, 26-24, 25-23) Thursday night at the University Center.
After a first set in which SLU got down 5-0 and never led as the Islanders won it 25-15, the second set didn't start much better for the Lady Lions as the Islanders jumped out to a 5-1 lead. But a kill by
Kailin Newsome seemed to get things turned around for the Lady Lions and SLU scored the next six points as a
Crispin Adams kill put SLU up 7-5. From that point, the Lady Lions outscored TAMUCC 18-8 to end a dominant second set at 25-13 as
Ryley Boyne ended the set with a kill.
The key series in the third set started with the Islanders leading 17-14 as
Kailin Newsome got a kill with a TAMUCC player in the net which started a run of six straight Lady Lion points, capped by an Islander ball-handling error to give SLU a 20-17 lead. The extended to 8-1 as an Islander attack into the net put the Lady Lions up 22-18. From there, TAMUCC would rally to tie it up at 23-23 a
Cicily Hidalgo kill put the Lady Lions on set point, but TAMUCC was able to get the next point to force extra rallies. A
Kailin Newsome kill and a service ace by
Hannah Brewer gave SLU the two points needed to take the tie-breaking set 26-24.
SLU enjoyed an early 9-5 lead in the fourth set following a
Cicily Hidalgo kill as the Lady Lions looked to close out the match, but TAMUCC rallied to tie the set up at 13-13. With the set tied at 16-16, another kill by Hidalgo gave the Lady Lions the lead for good as the Lady Lions scored three straight to take a 19-16 lead. TAMUCC would make it a one-point game at 23-22, but Hidalgo got the two kills needed to put the set and the match away.
Kailin Newsome led the Lady Lions offense with 18 kills in the match, as well as three service aces and nine digs.
Karlee Wilkerson and
Cicily Hidalgo each had ten kills with Hidalgo picking up seven digs and a service ace.
Ansley Tullis led the team with 22 digs while
Gracie Duplechein assisted on 25 kills and
Ariana Hebert added 15.
The Lady Lions (16-6, 6-4 SLC) look to expand on their 8-0 home record on Saturday as they welcome Houston Christian, the current Southland Conference leaders, to Hammond. Opening serve of Saturday's match against the Huskies (16-7, 8-2 SLC) is set for 1:00 P.M. at the University Center and will also be streamed on ESPN+.
DIGGIN' IT CLUB / S CLUB
Fans interested in becoming active supporters of the Southeastern volleyball program are encouraged to join the Diggin' It Club. Lion volleyball alums are encouraged to join the exclusive S Club, which is restricted to Southeastern athletic letter winners.
All membership fees and donations to both the Diggin' It Club and S Club (volleyball) are available for the exclusive use of the Southeastern volleyball program. Membership information is available by contacting the Lion Athletics Association at
laa@southeastern.edu or (985) 549-5091 or visiting
www.LionUp.com.
SOCIAL MEDIA
For more information on Lady Lions Volleyball, follow @LionUpVB or @JWhiteSLU on Twitter, @LionUpVB on Instagram, like /SLUathletics on Facebook and subscribe to the SLUathletics YouTube channel.
