NATCHITOCHES, La. – The defending Southland Conference Champion Southeastern Louisiana University volleyball team was feeling good, leading its Southland Conference-opening match 2-1and the fourth set 12-6, but Northwestern State went on a 19-6 run to win that set and rode that momentum in the fifth as the Lady Lions fell 3-2 (26-24, 16-25, 17-25, 25-18, 15-9) to the Demons Thursday night in the Battle for the Boot at Prather Coliseum.
Northwestern State jumped out to a 6-4 lead in the first set before a kill by
Jacqueline Arrington set Southeastern off on a 6-point spurt, giving the Lady Lions a 10-6 lead as
Cicily Hidalgo found the floor for a kill. SLU continued to keep NSU behind, even as the Demons closed the deficit to one at 17-16, SLU scored three straight on a
Rachel Hartmann kill, a block by Arrington and
Kailin Newsome, and a Hartmann ace to reestablish a four-point lead at 20-16. NSU scored the next four to tie the set at 20-20, and then the next eight points were split evenly until another kill by Hidalgo put the Lady Lions on set point at 24-23. However, it was the Demons who would take the set by scoring the final three points of it to take a 1-0 lead in the match.
The next two sets went a lot smoother for Southeastern. After the Demons got the first point of the second set, a kill by Hartmann started a 6-0 run for the Lady Lions, capped by a kill by Newsome for a 6-1 Lady Lion lead. A kill by Hidalgo pushed the lead up further to six at 10-4 several rallies later. The Lady Lions continued to add the pressure, pushing the lead up to eight points at 20-12 following a Demon attack error. SLU needed just nine more rallies to finish off the set as a Lady Demon serve went long on set point to even the match at 1-1.
A 6-1 SLU start was on the docket for the third set as well, this time with Southeastern jumping out first and then NSU tying it at 1-1 before a kill by
Hannah Brewer started a five-point kick by the Lady Lions as Hidalgo got a serve to fall for an ace and the aforementioned advantage. The Demons scored the next three to get the SLU lead down to 6-4, but that run was fleeting as another Brewer kill kicked off a 12-4 Southeastern push with Brewer scoring another kill to give SLU an 18-8 advantage, the first double-digit lead for either team in the contest. But the Demons stretched out the end of the set, making Southeastern use 16 rallies to score the final seven points before an error on the set by the Demons on set point gave the Lady Lions the overall 2-1 lead in the match.
Victory felt well within Southeastern's grasp early in the fourth set as
Ryley Boyne and
Jacqueline Arrington blocked a NSU attack to put the Lady Lions up 8-2. Over the next 12 rallies, the two teams swapped points as a kill by Hartmann gave SLU a 12-6 advantage. But momentum shifted quickly and harshly away from the Lady Lions as the Demons rolled off the next seven points to take a 13-12 lead, their first lead in the match since the end of the first rally of the second set. That was only the start of what would be a 19-6 Demon run to take the fourth set and force the decisive fifth set.
SLU faced some early adversity in the fifth set before a NSU service error and kills by Hidalgo and Arrington gave Southeastern its lone lead of the fifth set at 5-4. The Demons scored the next four and were off the races again, scoring on 11 of the match's final 15 rallies to take the final set and the match, 3-2.
Hidalgo led the Lady Lion offense with 15 kills on the evening, hitting .289 in the match and added an assist, three service aces, and eight digs. Newsome continued her streak of double-doubles with 13 kills and 13 digs, making it her seventh double-double of the season and sixth in a row. She also added an ace and a block assist. Brewer picked up a season-high 10 kills on a .476 attack percentage on the night which included four block assists and four digs. Arrington had eight kills and seven total blocks, two solo and five assisted, along with an ace. Hartmann stuffed the stat sheet with five kills, six assists, two aces, and three block assists. Boyne had six kills, an assist, four block assists, and five digs.
Calli Collins had a season-best 21 assists to go with seven digs.
Peyton Stokley had 19 assists and six digs.
The attack was key for SLU in the match as the Lady Lions hit .333 in the two sets they won, but just .041 in the three sets they dropped, ending the match with a .160 overall hitting percentage. Northwestern State was much more consistent, hitting .253 in the three sets they took and .232 in the two sets they lost, finishing the match with a .243 overall hit percentage.
The Lady Lions (6-4, 0-1 SLC) look to rebound quickly as they're right back at it in Natchitoches on Friday afternoon, taking on Louisiana-Monroe. Opening serve against the Warhawks (3-7) is set for 1:30 p.m. in Prather Coliseum. All of SLU's remaining matches in the Battle for the Boot will not be live streamed, though live stats for all matches will be available.
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.
