HAMMOND, La. – The defending Southland Conference Champion Southeastern Louisiana University volleyball team will look to clinch the program's first SLC regular season championship this week and extend out its historic 18-match win streak as it welcomes Lamar on Thursday night for Senior Night before heading to McNeese for the regular season finale.
 
With two games left in the season, the Lady Lions (24-4, 15-1 SLC) can clinch a share of the SLC regular season championship and the #1-seed in next week's SLC Championship Tournament with one win in those final two contests. They can clinch the title outright by winning both matches or win one while Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (19-9, 14-2 SLC) drops one of its two remaining matches.
 
Thursday's match against the Cardinals (2-25, 2-14 SLC) will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the Pride Roofing University Center with senior night festivities happening prior to the start of the match. The match will be live streamed on ESPN+ with a radio broadcast also available on 90.9 FM The Lion in the Hammond/Ponchatoula area or worldwide on LionSports.net/ListenLive. Opening serve of Saturday's season finale match against the Cowgirls (15-14, 13-3 SLC) is set for 11:00 a.m. at the Legacy Center in Lake Charles. The match against McNeese will not be live streamed, either video or audio. Both matches will have live stats available.
 
Southeastern continues to be led offensively by Kailin Newsome who now leads the Southland in points per set this season after last week's big week. She averages 4.39 points per set while her 3.83 kills per set is second-most in the SLC and her 0.44 aces per set also leads the conference with her 43 service aces tied for the most in the SLC. She currently has an attack percentage of .231 and is second on the team in digs at 2.80 per set while also attaining 21 total blocks on the year.
 
Not far behind Newsome is the fourth-highest scorer in the league, Rachel Hartmann, who is coming off of winning her fourth SLC Offensive Player of the Week award of the season. Hartmann currently averages 3.81 points per set while her 3.23 kills per set is seventh-highest in the Southland and her .356 attack percentage is fourth-best in the conference. She has the third-most blocks on the SLU team with 55 while her 2.43 digs per set average is fourth-best on the squad. She also has the second-most service aces on the team with 27.
 
Cicily Hidalgo is third in scoring for Southeastern at 2.99 points per set, accruing 2.59 kills per set on a .252 attack percentage. Defensively, her 2.66 digs per set is third-best on the team while her 34 blocks on the year is the fourth-most on the squad.
 
Jacqueline Arrington, who won her second SLC Defensive Player of the Week award of the season on Monday, is up next in scoring, averaging 2.63 points per set. She's now averaging 2.02 kills per set with her .364 attack percentage currently sitting as the third-best in the Southland. Her blocking prowess is what has earned her the two SLC weekly honors as she now averages 1.06 blocks per set, the third-highest in the SLC, and has 105 total blocks on the season.
 
Hannah Brewer averages 1.93 points per set and has gotten herself into the top-10 of the conference's best hitters as her .308 attack percentage now sits as the sixth-best in the league. She averages 1.31 kills per set and her 62 total blocks is the second-most for SLU so far this season.
 
Gracie Duplechein starts the week with the second-highest assist per set average in the Southland at 10.53, just 0.01 assists per set behind the conference leader. Her 0.31 service aces per set is the ninth-most in the conference, totaling 22 aces on the season. Her 2.43 digs per set are fourth-most on the team while she also has the fifth-most blocks for Southeastern with 24.
 
Ansley Tullis has the seventh-most digs per set in the SLC on the season at 3.51. Her 17 service aces are fifth-most on the team while adding 98 total assists on the season.
 
As a team, the Lady Lions continue to lead the conference in points per set, 17.75, hitting percentage, .274, assists, 13.09, service aces per set, 1.76, opponent hitting percentage, .174, opponent assists per set, 10.41, opponent kills per set, 11.32, and opponent digs per set, 13.38. They're second in the conference in kills per set at 13.98.
 
Lamar enters Thursday's match in a similar situation as they were heading into the first meeting between the two teams, looking to build off of a win over Nicholls in its previous match, though Southeastern eventually won that match in straight sets. The Cardinals will be desperate as they need to win their final two matches of the season while having New Orleans, who Lamar plays on Saturday, lose both of its remaining contests to qualify for the SLC Tournament.
 
Lyric Jordan leads the Cardinals offense, averaging 3.79 points per set on the year. She averaged 3.32 kills per set on a .184 attack percentage. She has added 17 service aces and 34 total blocks on the season.
 
Wiktoria Warpechowska, who missed the first match against Southeastern, is second in scoring for Lamar, averaging 2.97 points per set on 2.12 kills per set and a .260 attack percentage. She's fifth in the conference in blocks per set average, averaging 0.99 blocks per set and has 17 service aces on the year.
 
Taisha Rhone, who had 12 kills in the first meeting against SLU, averages 2.77 points per set and 2.32 kills per set on a .078 attack percentage. She also leads the Cardinals in service aces with 25 on the year and has collected 18 blocks as well while also averaging 2.18 digs per set.
 
Gracie Cassidy averages 2.15 points per set and 1.64 kills per set on a .187 attack percentage. Her 49 total blocks are second-most on the team, behind Warpechowska's 77.
 
Jo Moffitt is Lamar's top setter, dishing out 8.00 assists per set and has 13 service aces on the year. She's also third on the team with 37 total blocks and in digs, averaging 2.25 per set.
 
Kaeden Robinson leads the Cardinals defense with 3.68 digs per set while collecting five blocks on the year. She also second on the team in service aces with 18.
 
Lamar averages 13.80 points per set, accruing 10.54 kills per set on a .139 team hitting percentage. The Cardinals put down 1.33 service aces per set and collect 1.93 blocks per set as a team.
 
Saturday's opponent, McNeese, enters their Thursday night match at Houston Christian riding the wave of a six-match win streak. The Cowgirls have already clinched a top-four seed in the SLC Tournament and will enjoy at least one bye, going straight into the quarterfinals. McNeese could, with a lot of help, still jump all the way into a share of the SLC regular season championship and a double-bye into the tournament semifinals heading into the final weekend, but it's a greater likelihood that both the Lady Lions and the Cowgirls will be locked into their tournament seed prior to the start of the match. SLU took down McNeese in straight sets in the Pride Roofing University Center back in early October.
 
The Cowgirls are led on offense by Carissa Chainey, who is third in the conference in points per set, averaging 3.89. Her 3.44 kills per set are also third-most in the SLC while hitting .222 on the year. She has 26 service aces on the season, second-most on the team while her 2.57 digs per set is third-most on the team and her 32 total blocks are fourth-most on the team.
 
McKenzie Moore averages 3.69 points per set, seventh-most in the conference. She averages 2.96 kills per set on a .299 attack percentage, ninth-best in the SLC. She also has the third-highest service ace per set average in the SLC at 0.35, and is the Cowgirls top blocker with 70 on the year.
 
Kayla Wilson averages 3.11 points per set, getting 2.89 kills per set on a .192 attack percentage and has blocked 27 opposing attacks on the year.
 
Sanni Rantanen is 10^th in the conference in attack percentage, hitting .295 on her way to 2.23 kills per set and 2.86 points per set. She also has 17 service aces on the season and is second on the team in blocks with 68.
 
McNeese gets two setters involved in their matches. The top setter is Megan Grose, who averages 9.43 assists per set while Emma Hendricks averages 8.82 assists per set. Both have 13 service aces on the season. Grose has 16 total blocks on the year while Hendricks has 14 blocks.
 
Defensively, Tshilanda Diouf is third on the team in blocks with 60 on the season. Bailey Tillman leads the SLC in digs per set average, keeping up 5.19 opposing attacks per set.
 
The Cowgirls average 16.76 points per set and 13.42 kills per set on a .221 team attack percentage. They also average 1.45 service aces per set while knocking down 1.89 blocks per set.
 
After this weekend's matches, attention turns to the Southland Conference Championship Tournament, where an automatic berth into the NCAA National Championship Tournament will be awarded to the winner. This year's SLC Volleyball Championship Tournament will be played from November 16^th-19^th at the Dugan Wellness Center on the campus of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
 
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.
 
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