HOUSTON, Texas – The reigning
, two-time Southland Conference Champion Southeastern Louisiana University volleyball team moved its overall win streak to 18-straight, taking down the Houston Christian Huskies in straight sets (25-21, 25-18, 25-20) Thursday evening at Sharp Gymnasium.
Cicily Hidalgo led all scorers in the match with 14.5 points. She finished the night leading Southeastern (18-4, 10-0 SLC) with 13 kills on a .323 attack percentage and two blocks, one being solo.
Hannah Brewer scored 12 points on the evening with 11 kills and two block assists. She collected her sixth double-double of the season by adding 13 digs, the most by any Lady Lion on the evening, to her kills total.
Alexis Logarbo added 10.5 points with eight kills and five block assists.
Gracie Duplechein and
Ashley Richardson both had 18 assists with Richardson adding a pair of service aces.
Southeastern ended the night with 47 kills and 15 errors on 117 total attacks for a .274 attack percentage. SLU also got points off of three service aces and nine blocks on the evening. HCU (7-12, 4-4 SLC) ended the night with 32 kills and 19 errors on 112 total attacks for a .116 attack percentage while also getting four service aces and five blocks.
After slipping behind 2-1 to open the first set, kills by Hidalgo, Logarbo, and
Keira Beverly pushed the Lady Lions out to a 4-2 lead. The Huskies then rolled off an 8-1 run to jump out to a 10-5 lead.
A kill by
Kyra McKelvey out of a timeout turned the tide in quick order into Southeastern's favor as the Lady Lions rolled off 12 of the next 16 points to go up 17-14 on a Husky attack error.
HCU cut the deficit down to one point several times, the final time being at 22-21. A kill by Logarbo got the side-out to get SLU the serve back, and the Lady Lions would not give it up for the remainder of the set. Another Logarbo kill put Southeastern on set point, and a block by Beverly and Hidalgo ended the first set with a 25-21 score, putting SLU up 1-0.
The Huskies opened the second set with a kill, but it was Southeastern who enjoyed the early edge as kills by
India Bennett, Hidalgo, Logarbo, and a set error by HCU gave SLU a 4-1 lead. The Huskies scored the next two to make it a one-point set again before the two teams traded the serve back-and-forth. A block by Hidalgo and a kill by Beverly made it two-straight SLU points to reestablish a three-point edge at 8-5.
Houston Christian answered with four-straight points to retake the lead at 9-8, and then the teams sided each other out to make it 10-9 Huskies. Bennett and Brewer tied the score up at 10-10 by blocking back a HCU attack, starting a run of five-straight Southeastern points, a run that gave the Lady Lions a lead that they would not relinquish. The run included a second block by Bennett and Brewer, kills by Logarbo and Brewer, and another block which featured Bennett and Logarbo which made the score 14-10 SLU.
HCU scored the next three points to make it a one-point set again, but Southeastern had an answer for each mini-run the Huskies tried to string together. With SLU leading 18-16, a Husky attack error started a run of six-straight points for the Lady Lions. This run included two kills by McKelvey, another by Hidalgo, and a service ace by Richardson. Another HCU attack error ended the run and put the Lady Lions on set point at 24-16. Three rallies later, Hidalgo got an attack to fall for a kill, ending the set at 25-18 and putting the Lady Lions up 2-0 in the match.
The first 21 rallies of the third set were back-and-forth as the two teams traded mini runs which led to four ties and neither team leading by more than three points, that coming on a block by Bennett and Logarbo which made it 10-7 Southeastern. HCU scored three of the next four to make it 11-10 SLU.
That's where the Lady Lions started to open a bit of a gap as a Husky attack error kicked off a 5-1 SLU run. The run included a kill by Hidalgo and service aces by both
Lexi Gonzalez and Richardson, the latter of which gave Southeastern a 16-11 lead.
HCU closed to gap down to three points twice, once at 17-14 and again at 18-15, but a Husky attack error and a block by Logarbo and Bennett pushed the advantage back up to five points at 20-15. From there on, the two teams sided each other out all the way to the end of the match with a kill by Beverly on SLU's second match point securing the sweep with a 25-20 score.
The win was not only the 18
th-straight for the Lady Lions, but it extended Southeastern's win streak in Southland Conference action to 27-straight while also being the 30
th-straight win over SLC teams in all competitions. SLU has also won six-straight in the series against Houston Christian.
Southeastern enjoys the rest of the weekend off, with its next match set for next Thursday as the Lady Lions look to complete their four-match road trip without a loss when they head down to Thibodaux, trying to complete the season sweep of Nicholls. Opening serve of the Halloween night match against the Colonels (7-12, 2-6 SLC) is set for 6:30 p.m. in David R. Stopher Gymnasium. That match is currently not set to be televised, but live stats 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.
