HAMMOND, La. – The Southeastern Louisiana University volleyball team continued to assert its dominance at home, riding
Cicily Hidalgo's ninth double-double of the season to move to 11-0 inside the friendly confines of the University Center by taking down the Texas A&M-Commerce Lions 3-0 (25-16, 25-20, 25-13) Saturday afternoon.
With Commerce leading 6-3 in the first set, back-to-back kills by
Kailin Newsome started a Lady Lion run that seemed to put the other pack of Lions on their heels for the remainder of the match as those two kills were followed up by three straight service aces by
Ariana Hebert before
Ryley Boyne and
Hannah Brewer combined on a block to put Southeastern up 9-6.
Later in the set, an ace by Brewer gave the Lady Lions a 14-8 lead. Several rallies later, a kill by
Cicily Hidalgo gave the Lady Lions a 17-9 lead.
Ryley Boyne capped off the set with a kill of her own on set point to give SLU a 1-0 lead in the match.
The second set was an evenly contested set until a kill by Brewer started a run of five out of six points for the Lady Lions, turning an 11-10 SLU lead into a 16-11 advantage for Southeastern following a kill by Hidalgo. That run included another kill by Hidalgo and one by Boyne. The remainder of the set went back-and-forth until
Kailin Newsome connected for a kill on set point to make it 2-0 in the match in favor of Southeastern.
SLU owned the third set almost from the start, scoring the first three points and kept the pressure going until a Commerce attack error put the Lady Lions up 11-3. Leading 12-6, a kill by
Cicily Hidalgo started a run of seven points out of eight going to Southeastern as a
Kenzie Smith kill put SLU up 19-7. Hidalgo capped things off with a kill on match point to finish the sweep.
Cicily Hidalgo's ninth double-double of the season saw her amass a match-high 14 kills to go with ten digs. Her 14 kills came with just one error on 29 total attacks for a hitting percentage of .448.
Kailin Newsome and
Ryley Boyne both hit over .450 as they collected 13 kills each. Newsome's 13 kills came with two errors on 24 attacks for a .450 hitting percentage while Boyne had 13 kills with two errors on 23 total attacks for a .478 attack percentage. Newsome had seven digs while Boyne added two block assists in the match.
Ariana Hebert finished the match with a team-high 27 assists and three service aces to go with six digs.
Gracie Duplechein had 20 assists with eight digs.
Ansley Tullis had a team-high 12 digs with five assists.
Hannah Brewer had two block assists with four kills.
Kibi Huggins added a solo block as well.
With just two matches left in the regular season, the Lady Lions (21-7, 11-5 SLC) find themselves still one game back of two teams in the standings. On Thursday night, they play one of those teams as they head over to Lake Charles for a match with McNeese State. SLU will be looking to finish a season sweep of the Cowgirls after they knocked off McNeese in four sets in the University Center back in September. Opening serve of Thursday's match against the Cowgirls (16-14, 12-4 SLC) is set for 4:00 P.M. at the Legacy Center and will be streamed on the McNeese athletics website.
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.
