NATCHITOCHES, La. – The defending Southland Conference Champion Southeastern Louisiana University volleyball team finished the Battle for the Boot tournament with a pair of dominant sweeps, defeating Southern 3-0 (25-23, 25-11, 25-22) and Louisiana Tech 3-0 (25-13, 25-22, 25-21) Saturday at Northwestern State's Prather Coliseum.
Match 1: Southeastern 3 (25, 25, 25), Southern 0 (23, 11, 22)
Southeastern's day started in the morning against Southern and the Lady Lions jumped out early, getting out to a 7-4 lead following a kill by
Lily Morgan. The Jaguars fought back though, eventually tying the score at 11-11. With SLU leading 14-13, the Lady Lions opened a bit of breathing room again as a
Jacqueline Arrington kill started a run of three-straight Southeastern points, finished off as a Jaguar attack missed the court to make it 17-13 SLU. However, Southern went on a big run by scoring nine of the next 11 points, including a run of five straight in the middle of that run to put the Jaguars up 22-19. Back-to-back Southern attack errors was followed by an
Alexis Logarbo kill to tie the set at 22-22, though Southern reclaimed the lead on the next rally with a kill. However, that would be the Jaguars' final point of the set as the Lady Lions scored the final three points of the set off of kills by Logarbo,
Rachel Hartmann, and Logarbo again on set point to give SLU the comeback set win at 25-23.
The second set was dominated from the Lady Lions almost from the start as Southeastern jumped out to a 6-1 lead following another kill by Logarbo. SLU made it a seven-point lead at 11-4 following an Arrington kill. Southern scored the next two to make it a five-point set at 11-6, but SLU put the game far out of reach with the next streak, scoring nine of the next 10 points, starting with a Jaguar serve error and ending with a Southern attack missing the court which put the Lady Lions up 20-7. Southeastern needed nine rallies to get the final five points to close out the set at 25-11 and go up 2-0 in the match.
Southern wouldn't go down without a fight in the third set though, jumping out to a quick 4-1 advantage. Southeastern scored the next three, all on Jaguar errors, to tie the set, but Southern continued to keep SLU from getting in front over the next several rallies. With the Jaguars leading 8-6, a kill by Arrington kicked off a Lady Lion run that final pushed Southeastern ahead as SLU scored five in a row, capped by a
Carissa Young kill to make it 11-8 Lady Lions. But Southern had another answer, scoring on five of the next six to reclaim the lead at 13-12. The match remained even over the next several rallies with Southern continuing to maintain a small advantage until they held 18-17 lead. That's when Southeastern turned it up to finish things off as a
Kailin Newsome kill started a run of four straight Lady Lions points, and six of the next seven going to SLU, which was ended by another Hartmann kill to make it 23-19 Southeastern. Southern tried to rally again with two straight points, but Logarbo got a kill to put SLU on match point and then she ended it two rallies later with another kill for the 25-22 set win, ending the match with a 3-0 sweep.
Hartmann continued her run of strong play, finishing with a match-high 11 kills on a .300 attack percentage to go with nine digs, two block assists, and a service ace. Logarbo had her best match as a Lady Lion as she matched Hartmann by besting her career high with 11 kills, getting her new single match best number of kills without an attack error on a .458 attack percentage. She also had four digs and two block assists.
Ansley Tullis had 12 digs with five assists and a service ace.
Peyton Stokley finished with 18 assists, nine digs, and a service ace.
Calli Collins added 14 assists.
Hannah Brewer had a team-high two service aces.
Southeastern finished the match hitting .229 as a team while Southern was held to .092 hitting as a team in the match.
Match 2: Southeastern 3 (25, 25, 25), Louisiana Tech 0 (13, 22, 21)
Southeastern's second match of the day started with the Lady Lions looking to immediately establish dominance, starting with Stokley getting a service ace on the match's opening serve which helped SLU jump out to a 6-1 lead over the Bulldogs following a LA Tech attack error. Three rallies later, the lead was pushed out to 8-2 following a kill by Arrington. Six rallies later, a Hartmann kill capped a 4-0 Lady Lion run to give Southeastern a 12-4 advantage. That advantage reached double digits as Logarbo put down a kill to make it 18-8 SLU. Southeastern largest lead of the set came as a serve by Collins found the floor for an ace and a 24-11 score, putting the Lady Lions on set point. Three rallies later, a Bulldog serve ended up in the net to end the set at 25-13.
Louisiana Tech took the early advantage in the second set, jumping out to a 7-3 lead following a service ace. However, Southeastern scored the next three points, which included an Arrington kill as well as a block between Arrington and Newsome, to make it a one-point game. With the Bulldogs leading 10-8, the Lady Lions got the big run they were looking for to get the lead as a LA Tech attack error started a 9-2 Southeastern run which was ended by a Newsome kill for a 17-12 SLU lead. The Bulldogs battled back, eventually cutting that lead down to just one point at 23-22, but LA Tech attack error put the Lady Lions on set point and Arrington ended it with a kill on the next rally to secure the set at 25-22 and a 2-0 SLU lead in the match.
The third set started much like Southeastern wanted as the Lady Lions jumped out to a 6-2 lead after another Arrington kill. Louisiana Tech rallied though, going on a 5-1 run to tie the set at 7-7, but a
Carissa Young kill made sure the SLU would get right back into the lead. With the set tied at 14-14, Arrington put down another kill to start another 6-1 SLU run to put Southeastern up 20-15 following a service ace by Newsome. The Bulldogs answered with a 6-3 run to cut the lead down to 23-21, but Brewer scored a kill to put the Lady Lions on match point and an error on the set by LA Tech ended the match at 25-21.
Arrington had her best match offensively as a Lady Lion, needing just 13 attacks to secure a season-high 12 kills with no errors for a .923 attack percentage while also picking up three block assists. Newsome finished the match with eight kills, seven digs, three service aces, and two block assists. Collins had 15 assists and three service aces as well. Stokley had 19 assists, six digs, and a service ace.
Southeastern was very efficient on the attack against the Bulldogs, finishing with a .325 hit percentage. Louisiana Tech hit for -.074 in the first set ended up hitting .152 as a team in the match overall.
"I was really proud of the way we handled adversity this weekend," said SLU head volleyball coach Jeremy White. "It definitely did not start the way we wanted but we were able to rebound to take three more games while also getting some young players the opportunity to contribute. I think overall our preseason schedule has really prepared us to be extremely competitive in Southland play."
With the non-conference portion of the schedule now complete, the Lady Lions (9-4, 0-1 SLC) start the main portion of the Southland Conference schedule on Thursday as SLU heads to San Antonio for a match with Incarnate Word. Opening serve of Thursday's match against the Cardinals (8-4, 0-0 SLC) is set for 6:00 p.m. in the McDermott Center.
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.
