HAMMOND, La. – The Southland Conference regular season champion and #1-seed Southeastern Louisiana University volleyball team begins its quest for back-to-back Southland Conference Volleyball Championship Tournament titles on Saturday in a semifinal contest against the winner of Friday's quarterfinal between #4-seed Houston Christian and #5-seed Northwestern State at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's Dugan Wellness Center.
 
The semifinal match between the Lady Lions (26-4) and either the Huskies (18-12) or Demons (14-16) is set for 2:00 p.m. in Corpus Christi with the winner advancing to Sunday's 2:00 p.m. championship match. The 2023 SLC Volleyball Championship Tournament is being aired on ESPN+ in its entirety with live stats for all matches also available through the Southland Conference. SLU enters as the defending champion of the tournament, having won its first SLC Tournament Championship last season on its home floor by knocking off HCU in four sets in the 2022 Final.
 
Southeastern enters the tournament as its top seed, and with it, earned a double-bye all the way to the semifinal, having won a historic 20-straight matches to close out the regular season. The final 17 matches in the win streak all came during SLC play where SLU went 17-1, the most wins in conference play for SLU since joining the Southland a quarter-century ago and most wins by a single team in SLC play since 2013.
 
In Southland play this season, there was no better scorer than Kailin Newsome. The now three-time All-Southland Conference First Team member scored 4.91 points per set against SLC teams. In the 18 conference matches, Newsome got 4.15 kills per set, second most in the SLC, on a .251 attack percentage while her 0.61 service aces per set was also the best in the league, leading an offense that had the most points per set and the most service aces per set in the SLC.
 
Rachel Hartmann showed out in her first season in the green and gold, and in doing so was named the SLC's Newcomer of the Year as well as All-Southland Conference First Team. She had the fourth-most points in SLC play this season at 4.19 points per set while her 3.57 kills per set was the fifth-most in SLC matches and her .395 attack percentage was the second-best in the Southland. She had 0.67 blocks per set in SLC matches, third-most on the team as well. This is the second time Hartmann has been named All-Conference, first time by the Southland.
 
Like Newsome, Cicily Hidalgo made it three-for-three with All-Conference honors as a member of the Lady Lions as she earned All-Southland Conference Second Team honors. Hidalgo averaged 3.02 points per set in SLC play during the season, collecting 2.58 kills per set on a .235 attack percentage. She also had 2.56 digs per set and 0.45 blocks per set in SLC matches.
 
SLU's top blockers were Jacqueline Arrington and Hannah Brewer. Arrington averaged 1.07 blocks per set, fifth-best in the conference, against conference foes while her .353 attack percentage was the fourth-best in SLC play. Arrington had 2.08 kills per set and 2.66 points per set in the 18 SLC matches this season. Brewer averaged 0.85 blocks per set while her .322 attack percentage is the sixth-best in the SLC.
 
Gracie Duplechein will be running the offense. Her 11.70 assists per set in SLC play was the second-most in the conference. She's involved on the defensive end as well, collecting 2.79 digs per set, second most on the team this season, and averages 0.45 blocks per set on the season.
 
Ansley Tullis is the defensive leader at 3.82 digs per set and has even gotten a couple kills from her libero position as well this year.
 
Of its two potential semifinal opponents, Southeastern swept Houston Christian, completing a comeback to win in five sets at the Pride Roofing University Center in early October before knocking off the Huskies in four sets in Houston two weeks later. Northwestern State was the only team to defeat the Lady Lions in SLC play, rallying to beat SLU in five sets in Natchitoches on September 14^th which was also the last loss Southeastern suffered entering the SLC Tournament. SLU avenged that loss in a big way, knocking off the Demons in straight sets in the Pride Roofing University Center in mid-October. NSU swept Texas A&M-Commerce on Thursday in the first round of the tournament.
 
The winner of Southeastern's semifinal match on Saturday will take on the winner of the other semifinal match featuring the #2-seed and tournament host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, who the Lady Lions swept in six total sets, and the winner of Friday's quarterfinal between #3-seed McNeese State and #7-seed New Orleans. The Cowgirls forced a fourth-set in last Saturday's season finale to represent the lone set they would win off of SLU during the regular season while the Lady Lions needed to six sets to knock off the Privateers twice this season. UNO won a five-set thriller over Incarnate Word in Thursday's first round.
 
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.