HAMMOND, La. – The defending Southland Conference Champion Southeastern Louisiana University volleyball team rode the hot hands of
Kailin Newsome and
Rachel Hartmann to a dominant, straight-sets win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, the team it was tied with atop the Southland Conference standings to start the night, defeating the Islanders 3-0 (25-8, 25-19, 25-19) in the battle for first place in the SLC and extended its historic win streak to 17-straight victories Thursday night at the Pride Roofing University Center.
Southeastern (23-4, 14-1 SLC) set the tone right out of the gate, with Hartmann getting a kill on the match's first rally and Newsome getting one on the second. With SLU leading 3-2, another Hartmann kill started a run of six-straight Lady Lions points with an Islander attack error putting Southeastern up 9-2. A&M-Corpus Christi (18-9, 13-2 SLC) scored the next two to make it 9-4, but another Islander attack error started a 7-1 run with
Jacqueline Arrington and
Gracie Duplechein rejecting an A&M-Corpus Christi attack to take a 16-5 lead. Leading 20-8, the Lady Lions put the first set to bed in quick succession as another Hartmann kill started a set-ending 5-0 run as an Islander ball-handling error gave Southeastern a 25-8 win to take a 1-0 lead in the match.
SLU again jumped out just as quickly in the second set as another Hartmann kill made it 4-1 Lady Lions. However, with the Lady Lions up 6-3, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi made its first run of the night, scoring three-straight points to tie the set back up before a Newsome kill put Southeastern back ahead. The two teams traded points until it was tied 8-8, and that's when a Newsome kill gave SLU the lead for good in the set. That kill started a 5-1 Lady Lion run as a service ace by
Hannah Brewer put SLU up 13-9. Leading 17-14, another Newsome kill started a run of four-straight Lady Lion points, part of a larger 6-1 Southeastern run with a kill by
Cicily Hidalgo giving SLU a 23-15 lead. Two rallies later, a Hartmann kill put Southeastern on set point. It would take four rallies, but another Hartmann kill finally ended the set at 25-19, giving the Lady Lions a 2-0 lead in the match.
Newsome tallied another kill to open the third set, but the Islanders answered with another 3-0 run to take their first lead at any point in the match at 3-1. The A&M-Corpus Christi lead would not last long as a Newsome kill, a block by Brewer, and a Hartmann kill put Southeastern back ahead 4-3. That was the first three of an 8-2 SLU run as Arrington and Duplechein rejected another Islander attack to put the Lady Lions up 9-5. Leading 12-9, Southeastern blew the set open as another Newsome kill started a run of four-straight SLU points, part of a larger 8-2 Southeastern run as a Hartmann kill put the Lady Lions up 20-11. Another Newsome kill pushed the lead into double-digits at 23-13, but it would take some time for the Lady Lions to put the finishing touches on things as the Islanders scored three in a row before another Newsome kill put Southeastern on match point. Three more Texas A&M-Corpus Christi points followed before an Islander attack sailed long and missed the court to end the third set at 25-19 while simultaneously ending the match in the favor of the Lady Lions.
"This is a huge win that puts us in a great position to achieve our goal of a regular season championship," said SLU head volleyball coach Jeremy White. "We still need to keep our heads down and prepare for these next three matches. Our athletes have done such a great job of taking this one game at a time and we're going to keep that same mindset throughout the rest of the season."
Hartmann had her fourth 20-kill match of the season, finishing the match with exactly 20 kills with just one error on 26 total attacks for a .731 attack percentage in the win. She also added an assist and five digs in the match. Newsome finished the night with 18 kills and three errors on 29 total attacks for a .517 attack percentage, moving to fifth place on the SLU career kills list during the match. She also added four service aces and a pair of digs. Arrington had five kills on a .417 attack percentage along with four assisted blocks and a solo block. Hidalgo finished the night with six kills, three digs, and a block assist. Duplechein had 39 assists, three block assists, and 13 digs for her ninth double-double of the season.
Ansley Tullis had 10 digs and six assists on the night. Brewer finished the night with two kills, two assists, three service aces, two solo blocks, and four digs.
Southeastern had 51 kills to just eight errors on 90 total attacks for a team .478 attack percentage on the evening. SLU had seven service aces and seven total blocks. The Lady Lion defense held the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi attack, one that was on par with SLU in most statistical categories coming in, to 30 kills with 14 errors on 87 total attacks for a team .184 attack percentage. The Islanders had two service aces and blocked back five Southeastern attacks. A&M-Corpus Christi's Kyndal Payne, the conference's leader in points per set and kills per set coming in, was held to five kills and committed five errors for a .000 attack percentage and finished with just 6.5 total points in the match.
Now all alone atop the Southland Conference standings as tonight's win moved them a full-game ahead of A&M-Corpus Christi with the tiebreaker now in hand over the Islanders, the Lady Lions look to draw even closer to the SLC regular season championship on Saturday when Incarnate Word comes to town for the third in the four-match home stand. Opening serve of Saturday's match against the Cardinals (13-14, 5-10 SLC) is set for 11:00 a.m. in the Pride Roofing University Center. Saturday's match will be live streamed on ESPN+ with live stats also available on LionSports.net. It will also be Alumni Match with all volleyball alumna invited to return and be honored. If you're a volleyball alumna looking to take part in the festivities, you're asked to contact Assistant to the Athletic Director for Athletic Development Allie Crain ahead of the match.
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.
