PROVO, Utah –The reigning
, two-time Southland Conference Champion Southeastern Louisiana University volleyball team ended the dōTERRA Classic by dropping its third-straight contest against a NCAA Tournament team from a season ago, falling 3-1 to Fairfield in SLU's final match of the event Saturday evening at BYU's George Albert Smith Fieldhouse.
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
Score |
| SLU |
25 |
18 |
16 |
20 |
|
1 |
| FAIR |
22 |
25 |
25 |
25 |
|
3 |
Southeastern started quickly, jumping out to a 4-1 advantage on a
Kyra McKelvey kill. The Lady Lions pushed that advantage out to 8-3 as
Ashley Richardson got her first service ace of the evening to fall. But, with SLU leading 12-7 following a
Cicily Hidalgo kill, Fairfield went on an 8-0 run to grab a 15-12 lead before a set error by the Stags gave the Lady Lions the serve back. Southeastern battled back and tied the score at 16-16 on a kill by
Anne Brauckmiller, but saw Fairfield jump back out to a 19-17 lead. But SLU had the late rally it needed as a kill by
Hannah Brewer started a run of five-straight points by the Lady Lions. That run included kills by Hidalgo and
Alexis Logarbo before Brewer and Hidalgo capped it by blocking back a Stag attack to make the set score 22-19. The two teams traded points back-and-forth over the next six rallies, a perfectly acceptable deal for Southeastern as
Cicily Hidalgo scored a kill on SLU's second set point to give the Lady Lions a 25-22 victory and go up 1-0 in the match.
After falling behind early in the second set, the Lady Lions seemed to be getting into a rhythm as
Lexi Gonzalez dropped in a service ace to put Southeastern on top 4-3. But the flow quickly turned against SLU as the Stags scored the next five points, part of a bigger 9-1 run as Fairfield took a 12-5 lead before a kill by
Lily Morgan got SLU back on the serve. However, Fairfield continued to extend the lead, getting it up to nine points twice, the last at 21-12 before Southeastern rattled off five of the next seven points to try to climb back into the match as another kill by Logarbo made the score 23-17. But the rally stalled and the Stags closed the set three rallies later for a 25-18 score, tying the match at 1-1.
For the second set in a row, the Lady Lions overcame an early deficit with three-straight points to take a 4-3 lead as a Stag attack missed sailed beyond the court. The two teams traded points over the next few rallies with a Hidalgo kill putting SLU up 6-5. However, that's where Fairfield took control of the set, scoring the next six points and seven of eight to go up 12-7. SLU would rally, scoring on the next three rallies and four out of five as another Hidalgo kill cut the Stag lead to 13-11. With Fairfield up 17-14 but SLU on the serve following a kill by Morgan, the Stags put the set away by scoring on eight of the set's final 10 rallies, claiming a 25-16 set win and going up 2-1 in the match.
Southeastern once again worked from behind to start the fourth set as Fairfield scored the first two points, but this time every SLU rally was stopped short and the Lady Lions were kept from getting a lead. A kill by Hidalgo made the score 5-4 Stags, but Fairfield followed that up with a six-point run for an 11-4 advantage before Richardson got a kill from the setter position to get the Lady Lions the serve back. SLU cut that deficit down to four points as Kiera Beverly put down an attack for a kill to make it 17-13. Down 23-16, the Lady Lions made one last push to get back even as a Morgan kill started a four-point push for Southeastern with Brewer and
Kibi Huggins combining on a block to make it 23-20. But that would be Southeastern's last point of the weekend as Fairfield came out of a timeout and scored the last two points the Stags needed to close out the set at 25-20, and the match at 3-1.
Hidalgo led the Lady Lions in scoring, tallying 11 kills while adding a solo block and two block assists for 13 points. She also had her first double-double of the season with 11 digs. Morgan equaled Hidalgo on the attack, also scoring 11 kills in the contest. Richardson ended the night with three points, scoring her first kill from the setter position as a Lady Lion while adding two more service aces to her total. She led the team with 24 assists while adding nine digs.
Gracie Duplechein also had a setter kill while collecting her second-straight double-double with 22 assists and 11 digs.
Southeastern finished the match with 53 kills as a team while committing 29 errors on 159 total attacks for a .151 attack percentage. SLU had three service aces and blocked seven Fairfield attacks. Fairfield (1-2) had 59 kills and 13 errors on 134 total attacks for a .343 attack percentage while getting two aces and blocking eight Lady Lion attacks.
The Lady Lions (0-3) look to rebound from this tough trip to Utah next week as Southeastern heads to El Paso for the Borderland Invitational. SLU's opening match in the Borderland Invitational will be against the event's host, UTEP. First serve against the Miners (1-1) is set for 6:30 p.m. MDT/7:30 p.m. CDT Thursday at UTEP's Memorial Gym. The match against UTEP will be live streamed on ESPN+ with live stats also available through the event hosts.
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.
