NATCHITOCHES, La. – The defending Southland Conference Champion Southeastern Louisiana University volleyball team started slow in its second match of the Battle for the Boot Tournament at Northwestern State, but then found two hot hands in
Rachel Hartmann and
Jacqueline Arrington and rode them to a 3-1 (17-25, 26-24, 25-19, 25-14) win over the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks Friday afternoon at the Prather Coliseum.
Southeastern's struggles from the end of Thursday night's match continued into the first set of this match as ULM jumped out to a 5-1 lead. Hartmann's first kill of the match was followed by back-to-back blocks, the first by Arrington and
Ryley Boyne and the second by Arrington and
Kailin Newsome, to pull the Lady Lions back to within a point at 5-4. That was part of SLU's own 5-1 run which tied the match at 6-6 following a kill by
Lily Morgan. But the Warhawks pilled away from there, scoring on eight of the next nine rallies to take a 14-7 lead. The SLU deficit grew to as much as nine points at 19-10 before a ULM serve error started a run of five straight points for Southeastern to cut the deficit down to 19-15 as Arrington and Newsome combined on another block. But the Lady Lions would pull no closer as the Warhawks needed just eight rallies after that to get the final six points they needed to close out the first set at 25-17.
The second set started much better for the Lady Lions as Southeastern jumped out to a 5-2 lead right out of the gate on a kill by Arrington. That lead expanded out to 12-5 on a kill by
Cicily Hidalgo. However, the Warhawks rolled off the next seven straight to tie the set at 12-12. While SLU would not trail in the set, every time they looked to pull away, ULM responded to get the score back even. With the set tied at 14-14, a kill by Hartmann started a 4-1 spurt by the Lady Lions which gave Southeastern an 18-15 lead following a kill by Arrington. ULM immediately scored the next three points to make it 18-18. Eventually, the set would be decided in extra rallies as another Hartmann kill put the Lady Lions on set point and an ace by
Hannah Brewer ended it, giving Southeastern a 26-24 set win while tying the match at 1-1.
That set seemed to be the spark which got Southeastern back on track. After falling behind 2-0 to start the third set, the Lady Lions scored on 12 of the next 16 rallies to jump out to a 12-6 lead following a block by Brewer and
Alexis Logarbo. The Warhawks got half of that back by scoring the next three points, but the Lady Lions pulled away again, this time for good in the set by scoring on six of the next nine rallies to open an 18-11 lead on a kill by Arrington. After several rallies of trading points, a Hartmann kill and a Warhawk attack error pushed the SLU lead up to eight points at 21-13. ULM made Southeastern work for the final four points, using up 10 rallies until another Hartmann kill ended the set at 25-19 and put the Lady Lions up 2-1 in the match.
Southeastern never trailed in the fourth set, jumping out to a 6-3 lead on a block by Brewer and Logarbo. With the Lady Lions up 8-7, a kill by Morgan sent SLU on a 10-2 run where Southeastern had streaks of four straight points and six straight points to blow the set wide open as a solo block by Hartmann put SLU up 18-9. This time, the Lady Lions took care of the final seven points more quickly, using 12 rallies to get to 25 points as a block by Morgan and
Ainsley Driska ended the set at 25-14 and the match at 3-1.
Hartmann had her best day on the attack as a Lady Lion, picking up her first 20-kill match while wearing the green and gold with exactly 20 kills in the match, doing so with an extremely efficient .543 attack percentage. She also picked up her fifth double-double of the season, second of the kills-digs variety, by getting 10 digs as well. She also had two assists, a solo block, and a block assist on the day. Arrington wasn't far off in the efficiency department as she had a season-high 11 kills on a .500 attack percentage while also contributing a solo block and four block assists.
Ansley Tullis had a team high 12 digs, a total which moved her into the top-10 on the SLU career digs list.
Peyton Stokley had a team high 26 assists to go with nine digs and got a point on a service ace. Brewer ended the match with two kills, an assist, a team-high three service aces, three block assists, and eight digs.
The tough start in the first set was highlighted by the team hitting .094 in the set, but that picked up immensely as the rhythm got better, punctuated by the third set where the Lady Lions committed just one attack error and hit for .536. At the end of the match, Southeastern was hitting .267 on the attack. For its part, ULM hit .275 in the first set, and it only went down from there, culminating in a .100 attack percentage in the fourth set. The Warhawks finished the match hitting .212 as a team.
The Lady Lions (7-4) wrap up their weekend in Natchitoches and the Battle for the Boot on Saturday with a pair of matches. The day kicks off in the morning with a match-up against Southern. Opening serve of the match against the Jaguars (1-6) is set for 10:00 a.m. It wraps up in the afternoon as Southeastern ends its play with a match against Louisiana Tech. Opening serve of the match against the Bulldogs (5-5) is set for 2:00 p.m. with both matches taking place inside Prather Coliseum on the campus of Northwestern State University. None of SLU's remaining matches in the Battle for the Boot will 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.
