HAMMOND, La. – The defending Southland Conference Champion Southeastern Louisiana University volleyball team wraps up its three-match road swing and starts the season's final homestand this week, looking to extend the historic 14-match win streak when it heads to New Orleans on Tuesday before coming home to face Nicholls on Thursday, trying to finish season sweeps of both teams.
 
Tuesday's match between the Lady Lions (20-4, 11-1 SLC) and Privateers (4-18, 2-9 SLC) is set for 6:30 p.m. in the UNO Human Performance Center while Thursday's match against the Colonels (3-18, 1-10 SLC) will also start at 6:30 p.m. in the Pride Roofing University Center. Both matches will be live streamed on ESPN+ with live stats also available for both. Thursday's match against Nicholls will also be broadcast live on KSLU 90.9 FM in the Hammond/Ponchatoula area and worldwide on LionSports.net/ListenLive.
 
While riding the momentum of the historic 14-match win streak, and with a spot in the Southland Conference Championship Tournament already locked up, Southeastern still holds just a tenuous half-game lead over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the race for the SLC regular season championship with only three weeks remaining in the regular season. Tuesday's match against New Orleans wraps up the final extended road swing of the regular season, representing the third match of the current three-match road trip. Thursday's match against Nicholls starts a four-match homestand for SLU, the final four matches of the season to be played inside the friendly confines of the Pride Roofing University Center in 2023.
 
Kailin Newsome, who's won three SLC Offensive Player of the Week awards this season, continues to be the main threat for SLU, averaging 4.30 points per set on the season, which is the second-most in the conference, just 0.09 points per set behind the conference leader. Her 3.80 kills per set are also second-most in the SLC, just 0.13 per set behind the current leader while getting her hitting percentage up to .209. Her 31 service aces are also second-most in the conference, eight less than the leader. While she leads the team in all the previous offensive categories, she's second on the team in digs by averaging 2.97 per set and has 20 total blocks to her credit.
 
Rachel Hartmann, who was awarded her third SLC Offensive Player of the Week award of the season on Monday, currently averages 3.75 points per set, which is the fourth-highest in the conference. Her 3.15 kills per set currently ranks fifth-best in the SLC while her .324 attack percentage is fourth-best in the Southland. She's also racked up 25 service aces on the season, averages 2.39 digs per set, and has taken part in 51 blocks on the year.
 
Cicily Hidalgo continues to also swing well for the Lady Lions, averaging 3.07 points per set while securing 2.63 kills per set on a .250 attack percentage with 15 service aces, a 2.85 dig per set average, and 29 total blocks on the year.
 
Jacqueline Arrington averages 2.55 points per set and is right above Hartmann in terms of attack percentage with her .335 attack percentage currently leading the team and sitting as the third-best in the SLC, leading to 1.95 kills per set. Her 89 blocks leads the Lady Lions and is the third-most in the SLC.
 
With her recent push of big matches on the set, Gracie Duplechein has propelled herself into the conference lead in terms of assists, averaging 10.37 per set and is the reigning SLC Setter of the Week, her second such award of the season, after a week which included resetting her single match career high in assists. She also gets it done in the service, having scored 19 serve aces, and on defense where she averages 2.40 digs per set and has 16 blocks on the year.
 
Hannah Brewer, who averages 1.89 points per set, has worked her way to 1.31 kills per set on a .298 hitting percentage with 19 service aces and has 56 blocks on the year, second-most on the team.
 
SLU enters the week's matches with the confidence of having beaten both New Orleans and Nicholls in straight sets in their previous meeting this season. As a team, Southeastern continues to lead the Southland in points per set, 17.57, attack percentage, .257, assists per set, 12.99, and service aces per set, 1.70. The Lady Lions sit second in the conference in kills per set, 13.86, opponent hitting percentage, .187, opponent assists per set, 10.85, opponent kills per set, 11.82, and opponent digs per set, 14.07.
 
New Orleans comes into Tuesday's match looking to put an end to a five-match losing streak, all of which ended in three sets as the Privateers will try for their first set win since knocking off Nicholls in four in their most recent victory.
 
The Privateer offense is led by Karen Cordero Barr, who averages 3.34 points per set. She's putting down 3.00 kills per set on a .185 attack percentage and has 15 service aces, the kills average and aces currently leading UNO. She also averages 2.46 digs per set and has 13 total blocks on the year.
 
Ryan Williams averages 2.26 points per set, scoring 2.13 kills per set on a .144 attack percentage and has 10 blocks to her credit.
 
Ava Kennon is right behind Cordero Barr on the service line, putting down 14 aces on the year while Defne Eciroglu has 13. Tatiana Mercer has 11 aces and Lani Alleman has gotten 10 to fall.
 
On the block for the Privateers, Sydney Gott leads the way with 31 while Courtney Roundtree has 29 and Kennon has 25.
 
The Privateers average 13.23 points per set, knocking down 10.39 kills per set on a .159 attack percentage. UNO averages 1.27 service aces per set, 14.68 digs per set, and 1.57 blocks per set.
 
Thursday's opponent, Nicholls, enters their Tuesday night home match against McNeese looking to continue their improving form of play which saw the Colonels defeat Texas A&M-Commerce on Thursday for their first Southland Conference win of the season, and then jump out to a 2-0 lead in the match against Northwestern State on Saturday before ultimately succumbing to the Lady Demons in five sets.
 
The Colonels are led by Gracie Campbell, who averages 3.92 points per set on the season. She puts down 3.52 kills per set on a .223 attack percentage and has eight service aces on the year. She also accounts for 2.10 digs per set and has eight blocks on the season.
 
Autumn Perry scores 3.15 points per set, tallying 2.50 kills per set on a .171 attack percentage while leading Nicholls with 22 service aces on the season. Defensively, she accounts for 1.94 digs per set and has 42 blocks on the year.
 
Trinity Vinzant scores 2.55 points per set so far in 2023, averaging 2.20 kills per set on a .120 attack percentage with 10 service aces as well. Her 2.63 digs per set are the second most on the team while she also has 17 blocks to her credit.
 
Paris Dixon has 11 service aces and leads the Colonels in blocks with 60 on the season.
 
Jhayla Bolden has accounted for 54 blocks on the season. Kendall Battistella and Berra Soyler will do most of the setting for the Colonels with Battistella averaging 4.52 assists per set and Soyler averaging 3.78 assists per set.
 
The Colonels enter Tuesday's play averaging 13.05 points per set as a team, putting down 10.26 kills per set on a .150 team attack percentage. They also average 1.11 service aces per set, get 13.04 digs per set, and get 1.69 blocks per set.
 
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.
 
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