HAMMOND, La. – The defending Southland Conference Champion Southeastern Louisiana University volleyball team continued its historic win streak, extending it to 10 victories in a row by getting back to taking care of business in straight sets, knocking off the McNeese Cowgirls 3-0 (25-16, 28-26, 25-20) Saturday afternoon at the Pride Roofing University Center.
Southeastern jumped out first to start the match as kills by
Cicily Hidalgo and
Rachel Hartmann gave SLU a 2-0 lead. However, McNeese scored the next three to take their first lead in the match before a kill by
Hannah Brewer tied the score at 3-3 and started a three-point run by the Lady Lions. The Cowgirls pulled one back with a kill, but Southeastern blew the set open from there, scoring the next seven points as a kill by
Jacqueline Arrington put the Lady Lions up 12-4. Over the rest of the set, every time the Cowgirls tried to put a run together, SLU answered back with a run of its own to extend the lead back out. A Cowgirl attack that missed the court on set point brought the first set to a close at 25-16 and put the Lady Lions up 1-0 in the match.
McNeese was the one to get out to a quick 2-0 lead to start the second set before a Hartmann kill got SLU on the board. After another Cowgirl kill made it 3-1, a serve into the net started a four-point push by Southeastern as another McNeese attack error put SLU up 5-3. McNeese pushed back ahead at 7-6 before a kill by Arrington and a Newsome service ace made it 8-7 Lady Lions. After the Cowgirls tied it back up at 8-8, a kill by Hidalgo started a four-point run by Southeastern to go up 12-8 after another Cowgirl attack error. McNeese answered with the next three and from then on, neither team led by more than two points until a block by McNeese gave the Cowgirls a 20-17 lead. Newsome got the deficit back down to two before another Cowgirl kill made it a three-point deficit again at 21-18. A kill by Hidalgo was the first of three-straight Lady Lion points which tied the set back up at 21-21 as Brewer and
Alexis Logarbo blocked back a McNeese attack. From there, the two teams traded points until the Cowgirls sat on set point at 24-23. A kill by Hartmann and an ace by Brewer turned that around and put Southeastern on set point. McNeese scored the next two to get back on set point for the second time, but this time the Lady Lions finished the comeback as a block by Hartmann and Arrington was followed by back-to-back kills by Newsome to take the set at 28-26 and go up 2-0 in the match.
The Lady Lions tried to pull away early in the search for the sweep, getting out to a 6-3 lead on a Hartmann service ace. That got out to four points at 10-6 on an ace by
Ansley Tullis and eventually 13-8 as Hartmann and Brewer blocked back a Cowgirl attack. At its peak, the lead reached six points as
Gracie Duplechein attacked on second touch and found a hole in the middle of the court for a kill and a 20-14 SLU lead. McNeese tried to rally back, scoring the next three to make it 20-17. After the two teams traded the serve back-and-forth over the next four rallies, a serve error and an attack error by McNeese put the Lady Lions on match point. The Cowgirls fought off one match point on a SLU serve error, but Hartmann made sure the match would extend no further, getting a kill on the next rally to end the match.
"Today was another gritty win for us," said SLU head volleyball coach Jeremy White. "I thought we did a really great job from the service line which put us in a lot of good situations to turn defense into offense from a blocking perspective or dig to kill. I'm really proud of the team for grinding out big points even when we didn't have our best stuff."
After getting her first 20-20 match as a Lion in Thursday's win, Hartmann continued her run of solid play by collecting a team-high 13 kills on a .500 attack percentage while also joining in on four block assists, had a service ace, and dug up four Cowgirl attacks. Newsome added eight kills, two serve aces, and a block assist to move up to ninth place on the SLU career points scored list while also digging 13 McNeese attacks. Hidalgo also had eight kills, a solo block, an assisted block, and nine digs. Arrington finished with five kills, five block assists, and an assist. Brewer added two kills, two aces, two assists, and four block assists with three digs. Duplechein had 28 assists to go with a kill and a block assist. Tullis had 12 digs and a service ace.
Southeastern finished the match hitting .152 as a team, collecting 37 kills with 20 attack errors on 112 total attacks. SLU also had six service aces as a team and blocked back 10 McNeese attacks. The Cowgirls hit .120 as a team, getting 35 kills and 21 attack errors on 117 total attacks. McNeese got just one ace in the match and blocked back 11 SLU attacks.
The Lady Lions (16-4, 7-1 SLC) have now won 10-straight matches, the longest win streak since the team joined the Southland more than 25 years ago. They look to keep it going on Thursday as they head out on the road for the first of four matches out of the next five to be away from the Pride Roofing University Center when SLU goes to Beaumont, Texas for a date with Lamar. Opening serve of Thursday's match against the Cardinals (1-17, 1-6 SLC) is set for 6:00 p.m. in McDonald Gym. The match will be streamed on ESPN+ with live stats available as well.
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.
