LAKE CHARLES, La. – The defending Southland Conference Champion Southeastern Louisiana University volleyball team made its 2023 SLC regular season championship an outright title and finished the regular season by extending its historic win streak out to 20 matches with a 3-1 (25-21, 25-20, 16-25, 25-20) win over the McNeese Cowgirls Saturday at the Legacy Center.
Southeastern (26-4, 17-1 SLC) never trailed in the first set as a
Kailin Newsome kill and
Cicily Hidalgo and
Hannah Brewer assisted each other on a block to give SLU an early 2-0 lead. At 3-2, a Cowgirl service error started a 7-3 Lady Lion run with another kill by Newsome giving SLU a 10-5 lead to cap it. McNeese cut that lead down to two points several times, the last at 14-12 before another Cowgirl service error started a 6-1 Southeastern run where a McNeese attack error put SLU up 20-13. The Cowgirls scored the next four to cut that lead down to three points at 20-17, but the Lady Lions scored four of the next five after that to take a 23-18 lead on another Newsome kill. Five rallies later, Hidalgo ended the set with a kill for a 25-21 score and a 1-0 SLU lead in the match.
McNeese (15-16, 13-5 SLC) controlled the early stages of the second set, jumping out to a 3-1 and then a 5-3 lead before Southeastern made its own 3-0 push to take a 6-5 lead on a service ace by Hidalgo. With SLU leading 8-7, the Cowgirls scored the next four points as part of a 5-1 run to take a 12-9 following a kill. But that's where the Lady Lions started to get back in rhythm again, scoring the next four, with back-to-back aces by Newsome giving SLU a 13-12 lead, as part of a larger 9-2 run as a McNeese attack error gave Southeastern an 18-14 lead. The Cowgirls scored the next two to make it 18-16, but kills by
Gracie Duplechein,
Ansley Tullis, and another McNeese attack error put SLU up 21-16. It took eight rallies from that point, but another Hidalgo set point kill ended it at a 25-20 score, giving the Lady Lions a 2-0 lead in the match.
SLU looked to get the third set in its favor quickly, jumping out to a 5-2 lead on a kill by
Rachel Hartmann. However, McNeese rallied back to eventually tie the set at 7-7 and take its first lead of the set at 10-9. With the set tied at 12-12, the Cowgirls rattled off four straight points before a kill by Newsome seemed to get things back under control. After a McNeese kill made it 17-13, Southeastern scored three-straight to make it a one-point set again as another Hartmann kill cut the Cowgirl lead down to 17-16. But the Lady Lions would not score again in the set as McNeese rattled off the final eight points to force a fourth set by winning the third at 25-16.
The McNeese run which ended the third set continued in the fourth as the Cowgirls scored on the set's opening rally to make it nine-straight McNeese points before a Hartmann kill finally ended the run. From there, the two teams traded points back-and-forth until, with the Cowgirls leading 5-4, a
Jacqueline Arrington kill started a three-point spurt by the Lady Lions with a Brewer kill putting SLU up 7-5. McNeese immediately tied it up, starting a section of the set where Southeastern would take a small lead only to see the Cowgirls immediately tie it back up, a process which continued until the score was tied at 10-10. But that's where the Lady Lions started to take control as three straight Cowgirl miscues started a 5-1 SLU run as a kill by Hidalgo made the score 15-11. McNeese would cut that lead down to two points several times over the remainder of the set, the final time at 20-18, before the Lady Lions finally put the finishing touches on as a set error by McNeese started a 4-0 SLU run with a block by Hidalgo and Arrington put Southeastern on match point at 24-18. It took three rallies, but the ball got to the hand of the Lady Lion who ended sets one and two and she took care of the fourth set as Hidalgo put down a kill to secure the set at 25-20 and the match at 3-1.
"I'm proud of the grit, determination, and camaraderie our student-athletes have shown this year," said SLU head volleyball coach Jeremy White. "I hope they all understand how special this season has been, but I know they know it's not done. We still have more goals to achieve."
Newsome had her fifth 20-kill match of the season, finishing the day with exactly 20 kills while moving up to third place on the SLU career kills list while her 14 digs also gave her a double-double for the 14
th time this season. She also finished with four assists, three service aces, and a block assist. Hartmann collected her eighth double-double of the season by tallying 14 kills on a .345 attack percentage and had 12 digs. She also added an assist and a block assist to her stat line. Arrington had nine kills on a .353 attack percentage with two digs and two block assists. Hidalgo also had nine kills, a team-high 17 digs, a service ace, two assists, and two block assists. Tullis got a kill to go with her 16 digs, four assists, and a service ace. Duplechein had 46 assists to go with two kills, two block assists, and nine digs. Brewer finished the match with four kills, four block assists, and four digs.
SLU's 26 wins is the most in a single season since the 1996 squad won 28 matches while the four losses are the fewest the team has had to enter the postseason since the 2020/spring 2021 COVID season while representing the fewest losses in a full season in program history. The 17-1 record in Southland play is the best in-conference record for the Lady Lions since joining the conference 25 years ago.
With the regular season now in the rearview mirror, the Lady Lions will enter the 2023 Southland Conference Volleyball Championship Tournament as its #1 overall seed, coming with it a double-bye which propels Southeastern straight into a semifinal match next Saturday. Opening serve of Southeastern's semifinal match is set for 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 18
th and will be against the winner of the quarterfinal match between the #4-seed Houston Christian Huskies (18-12, 13-5 SLC) and the winner of the first-round match between the #5-seed Northwestern State Demons (13-16, 9-9 SLC) and #8-seed Texas A&M-Commerce Lions (9-22, 5-13 SLC).
The 2023 SLC Volleyball Championship Tournament will take place at the Dugan Wellness Center on the campus of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and the entire tournament will be live streamed on ESPN+ with live stats also available through the Southland Conference.
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.
