HAMMOND, La. – The Southeastern Louisiana University volleyball team got 11 kills apiece from
Kailin Newsome and
Ryley Boyne as the Lady Lions avenged an earlier sweep at the hands of Houston Christian by sweeping the Huskies 3-0 (25-19, 25-22, 25-21) Saturday afternoon at the University Center.
Trailing 10-8 in the opening set, a Husky attack error started a run of three straight Lady Lion point to jump out in front following an ace by
Cicily Hidalgo. With the set tied at 12-12, a kill by
Kailin Newsome started a run of four straight SLU points as
Crispin Adams got the next 2 kills followed by a
Ryley Boyne kill to make it 16-12 Lady Lions. SLU would not allow HCU to get back into the set, pulling away for a 25-19 set win following another kill by Newsome on set point.
SLU jumped out to an early 8-3 lead in the second set following a
Cicily Hidalgo kill. However, the Huskies would slowly reel that deficit back in, eventually tying the score for the first time since 1-1 when an ace tied the set at 17-17. The Huskies would actually take the lead at 22-21, however, a set error by HCU tied the score and started a run of four straight Lady Lion points to close out the set as
Ryley Boyne dropped down a kill to end the set at 25-22.
The Lady Lions jumped on the Huskies quickly in the third set as a kill by Hidalgo put SLU up 4-1, a HCU attack error gave the Lady Lions an 8-4 lead, and another HCU attack error put SLU up 11-5. But with SLU up 12-8,
Gracie Duplechein stunned the Huskies with a setter attack that found a hole in the defense for a kill. That started a run of four straight Lady Lions points to open the lead up to 16-8 following another HCU attack error. A
Grace Toler service ace three rallies later put SLU up 18-9. The Huskies would mount a bit of a rally to try to make things interesting, but the Lady Lions would close things out with a
Karlee Wilkerson kill to finish off the sweep.
Ryley Boyne and
Kailin Newsome each had 11 kills in the match to lead the Lady Lions, setting a new season and career high for the freshman, Boyne. Newsome picked up her tenth double-double of the season by also collecting ten digs.
Gracie Duplechein was one dig shy of her own double-double with a team high 18 assists and nine digs.
Ariana Hebert collected 16 assists and two of SLU's six service aces.
Ansley Tullis had a team-high 16 digs while
Cicily Hidalgo was credited with 15 digs of her own.
The win moved the Lady Lions to 9-0 at the University Center on the season and a sweep of two teams which entered the weekend in the top three in the Southland Conference following Thursday's 3-1 win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
"This was a great weekend for our team," said SLU Head Volleyball Coach
Jeremy White. "I'm extremely proud of the fight we displayed to come back against Corpus Christi and even more proud of the complete match we played today against HCU. We are tough to handle in our home and if we can find a way to replicate it on the road this could be a fun finish to the season."
The Lady Lions (17-6, 7-4 SLC) look to build off the momentum from this weekend and continue to rule at home in a potentially key battle for postseason positioning on Thursday night as New Orleans comes to Hammond. First serve of Thursday's match against the Privateers (13-10, 7-4 SLC) is set for 6:30 P.M. in the University Center.
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.
