HAMMOND, La. – The defending Southland Conference Champion Southeastern Louisiana University volleyball team pulled to within one win of clinching its first ever SLC regular season championship by quickly dispatching of the Incarnate Word Cardinals 3-0 (25-12, 25-14, 25-16) Saturday at the Pride Roofing University Center to extend the team's historic win streak out to 18-straight games.
Southeastern (24-4, 15-1 SLC) took little time trying to open the first set up as a
Rachel Hartmann kill on the match's first rally started a 7-2 Lady Lion run as a UIW attack error gave SLU a 7-2 lead. The Cardinals answered the quick Southeastern start with a 5-1 run of their own to cut the SLU lead down to 8-7 before a kill by
Cicily Hidalgo kicked off a three-point push as
Gracie Duplechein scored a kill made it 11-7. UIW tried to keep contact with SLU, cutting the deficit down to 11-9 and later 13-10. However, a
Kailin Newsome kill started the run that finally allowed the Lady Lions to pull away for good as SLU scored the next seven points as another Hartmann kill made it 20-10. Three rallies later, leading 21-12, a kill by
Hannah Brewer started the final push as she followed that with an ace to make it 23-12. A Cardinals attack error followed, putting the Lady Lions on set point, and
Jacqueline Arrington finished it off with a kill for a 25-12 set one win for SLU.
The Lady Lions started even quicker in the second set, jumping out to a 4-2 lead before another Hartmann kill kicked off an 8-0 Southeastern run, pushing the lead into double digits for the first time in the match at 12-2. That lead grew to 12 points at 15-3 on another Hidalgo kill. UIW had a bit of a rally in them, cutting that lead down to six points at 19-13 and again at 20-14, but that would be the end of the Cardinals' scoring in the set as another Hidalgo kill started a set ending 5-0 run with Hartmann getting a kill and Brewer getting an ace in the run. A UIW attack error ended the set at 25-14, putting the Lady Lions up 2-0 in the match.
The third set started very evenly as the two teams traded points over the first 19 rallies, with Southeastern holding a 10-9 lead after a UIW kill. However, that's where the set was busted open as a kill by Arrington started a 7-0 Lady Lion run as Duplechein and Arrington combined on a block to make it 17-9 SLU. That run extended out to 10-1 following a kill by Arrington. The Cardinals tried to rally, going on a 5-2 run to cut the lead to 22-15, but back-to-back kills by Brewer got the Lady Lions on match point and, two rallies later, Newsome ended the match with a kill as the third set came to a close with the Lady Lions taking it 25-16.
"I'm proud of our athletes for keeping the one game at a time mindset," said SLU head volleyball coach Jeremy White. "I think we're really peaking at the right time. We're playing extremely well as a team. We're getting huge performances out of different people on different nights. And I think most of all we're really motivates to get back to the NCAA Tournament."
Arrington led a very balanced Southeastern attack, finishing the match with a match-high nine kills on a .692 attack percentage with five block assists and a dig. Brewer had eight kills on a .727 attack percentage with three service aces, an assist, and two digs. Hartmann also had eight kills on a .500 attack percentage and had nine digs with two block assists. Newsome also had eight kills, moving up to fourth-most on the SLU career kills list. She had a .238 attack percentage, an assist, and six digs. Duplechein had 31 assistrs, three service aces, three kills, a block assist, and four digs.
Now having won 18 straight, the Lady Lions look to clinch their first Southland Conference regular season championship on Thursday night when Lamar comes to town for Senior Night. Opening serve of Thursday's match against the Cardinals (2-25, 2-14 SLC) is set for 6:30 p.m. in the Pride Roofing University Center and it will be live streamed on ESPN+ with a radio broadcast on KSLU 90.9 FM in the Hammond/Ponchatoula area and worldwide on LionSports.net/ListenLive.
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.
