HAMMOND, La. – The defending Southland Conference Champion Southeastern Louisiana University volleyball team rallied back from a 2-1 deficit, riding the hot hand of
Rachel Hartmann who had her first 20 kill, 20 dig match as a Lady Lion to pull SLU to a 3-2 (22-25, 25-21, 21-25, 25-17, 15-9) win over the Houston Christian Huskies Thursday night at the Pride Roofing University Center, giving Southeastern its first nine-match win streak as a member of the SLC.
Southeastern got the match's first point as the Lady Lions watched the opening serve fly long of the backline for the first point. However, HCU went on a big run right after that, scoring the next seven points to take a 7-1 lead. Finally, another Husky serve error gave the Lady Lions the ball back and SLU took advantage as
Hannah Brewer got an ace to fall and Hartmann collected her first kill on the night before a HCU attack error pulled the Lady Lions back within 7-5. But the Huskies would not let SLU get closer, going on a 6-2 run to turn a 12-9 Houston Christian lead into an 18-11 Huskies advantage. A
Cicily Hidalgo kill seemed to get the Southeastern offense going, kicking off a 6-1 Lady Lion run which ended with a Hartmann ace which made it 19-17 HCU. A
Jacqueline Arrington kill got SLU to within 21-19, but four rallies later, the Huskies worked the score to set point. Southeastern fought off two of them with back-to-back kills by Hartmann, but the rally was snubbed by a Huskies kill to end the set at 25-22, ending SLU's 24-set win streak and streak of seven-straight wins by sweep.
Houston Christian looked to take control of the match overall at the start of the second set, jumping out to a 4-1 lead before another HCU service error started a 4-1 Southeastern run which was ended by another Husky attack which missed the court to tie the score at 5-5. The Huskies scored the next three to reclaim the lead at 8-5 before a kill by Hidalgo was followed by three-straight kills by
Kailin Newsome which gave the Lady Lions the lead at 9-8. Three rallies later, another kill by Newsome put SLU up 11-9. HCU scored three of the next four to tie the set back up at 12-12 before another Hartmann kill sent the Lady Lions on a big run to blow the set open, scoring seven of the next eight points to take a 19-13 lead on another Newsome kill. HCU tried to rally, cutting the SLU lead down to 23-20, but three rallies later, the set came to an end on a kill by Hidalgo to give SLU the 25-21 set win and even the match at 1-1.
The Lady Lions couldn't have asked for a much better start to the third set. After falling behind 2-0, SLU rolled off a 12-3 run to take a 12-5 lead in the set as
Lexi Gonzalez found a back corner for a service ace. HCU had a rally in them though, scoring five of the next six to get the deficit down to three points at 15-12. The Huskies kept it going over the next batch of rallies, cutting it down to one point at 17-16 before Southeastern rolled off three out of four thanks to kills by Hartmann, Hidalgo, and Arrington to push the advantage back out to 20-17. But the Huskies blitzed the Lions to close out the set, scoring eight of the final nine points to take the set at 25-21 and reclaim the match lead at 2-1.
With their backs now against the wall, the Lady Lions came out swinging in the fourth set, jumping out to a 6-1 lead following another ace by Gonzalez. HCU fought back again, scoring seven of the next nine to tie the set up at 8-8, but this time Southeastern answered back. With the set tied at 9-9, SLU scored five of the next six as another Husky attack error put the Lady Lions up 14-10. HCU scored the next two to make it 14-12, but that's where SLU put the set away as a Hartmann kill kicked off an 8-2 Southeastern run with a HCU attack into the net making the score 22-14 Lady Lions. Houston Christian scored the next two before kills by Arrington and Hidalgo got SLU to set point and, two rallies later, Arrington finished things off with another kill for the 25-17 set win to force the decisive fifth set.
As it had been doing all match long, Southeastern would have to battle from behind to win the fifth set and take the match as the Lady Lions found themselves trailing 3-0 and then 7-3. But SLU found its momentum in a big way as an Arrington kill was followed by back-to-back Newsome kills, spurring a match-ending 12-2 Lady Lion run. The run featured another kill by Newsome and one by Arrington, three blocks which Arrington was a part in all of while being assisted by Hidalgo and
Alexis Logarbo, and service aces by Newsome and
Ansley Tullis. The ace by Tullis came on match point to secure the comeback win by the Lady Lions.
"Tonight, we showed a lot of grit," said SLU head volleyball coach Jeremy White. "We didn't have our best stuff, but we were able to extend rallied with gritty defense until we were able to get a good look or force an error. I also thought we got some huge play out of our bench that really gave us the energy we needed to finish."
Hartmann had her best night as a Lady Lion, tallying a career high 24 kills and had her first 20-dig performance at Southeastern for her fifth double-double of the season while getting her first 20-20 double-double since she accounted for 23 kills, 24 assists, and 26 digs against Loyola-New Orleans while she at William Carey. She hit .420 on her way to her 24 kills in the match against HCU, with just three errors on 50 total attempts. She also accounted for three block assists, a service ace, and an assist.
On Hartmann's big night, White added, "Rachel is a phenomenal all-around player who can affect the game in so many ways. She's been an incredible addition to our team."
Newsome picked up her 10
th double-double of the season as she tallied 15 kills and 11 digs on the evening. She put down an ace and had a block assist on the evening as well. Hidalgo had her fifth double-double of the year with 13 kills and 19 digs while also helping out on five blocks on the evening. In the process, Hidalgo moved into 10
th place on the SLU career kills list. Arrington added 11 kills and blocked six attacks on the evening, all assisted, and had two assists and three digs.
Gracie Duplechein had a season-best 46 assists to go with 17 digs for her sixth double-double of the season. Tullis had a team-high 23 digs while adding four assists and a pair of service aces, including the ace on match point. Gonzalez had two of SLU's seven aces on the evening.
The Lady Lions hit .180 as a team in the match, collecting 66 kills with 30 errors on 200 total attacks. The also had seven aces as a team and blocked 11 HCU attacks. The SLU defense held Houston Christian to .143 hitting as a team, getting 55 kills and 28 errors on 189 total attacks. The Huskies collected five aces and 11 blocks as a team as well.
Now in possession of the program's longest win streak since joining the Southland Conference, the Lady Lions (15-4, 6-1 SLC) look to keep it going on Saturday when McNeese comes to town for another battle atop the SLC standings. Opening serve of Saturday's match against the Cowgirls (7-12, 5-1 SLC) is set for 12:00 p.m. in the Pride Roofing University Center. The match will be live streamed on ESPN+ with an audio broadcast available on KSLU 90.9 FM in the Hammond/Ponchatoula area or worldwide on LionSports.net/ListenLive. Live stats of the match will also be available on LionSports.net.
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
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