HAMMOND, La. – The reigning, back-to-back Southland Conference regular season champion Southeastern Louisiana University volleyball team fended off four match points against Jackson State and rallied to knock off the Tigers in five sets (25-19, 22-25, 17-25, 28-26, 15-12) Saturday afternoon in the University Center to finish the Southeastern Showdown undefeated.
Southeastern (3-0) was led in the comeback by
Kyra McKelvey, who scored 16.5 points in the match. She accumulated 15 kills on a .310 hitting percentage while also taking part in three blocks.
India Bennett got involved in a career high 13 blocks while adding eight kills to finish with 14.5 points in the match.
Anne Brauckmiller picked up her first double-double of the season, and second of her SLU career, by getting 12 kills to go along with 10 digs.
Ashley Richardson also finished the match with a double-double, her first of the season, leading the team with 29 assists while also getting 11 digs.
Peyton Stokley added 25 assists and had three crucial service aces to account for her scoring while getting five digs as well.
Lexi Gonzalez was again the leader along the back line with 16 digs while also scoring three critical service aces.
SLU tried to open the score in the first set early, taking a 10-5 lead after a kill by Bennett.
The Tigers (0-3) battled back, scoring eight of the next 10 points to take their first lead of the match at 13-12. But the Lady Lions showed their resolve, answered that push with a 9-4 spurt to go up 21-17 on a kill by McKelvey.
After trading three points with JSU, Southeastern finished the set by scoring the final three points on kills by
Lily Morgan, Brauckmiller, and a block by Bennett and
Alexis Logarbo to give the Lady Lions a 25-19 set win and a 1-0 lead in the match.
The second set was as tight as a set could be with neither team leading by more than two points for the vast majority of it. Southeastern used a 3-1 spurt to take its first two-point lead of the set at 11-9 as
Abigail Bailey and
Ayla Klingenberg combined to send back a Tiger attack.
SLU used a 3-0 run to take a 20-19 lead off of a JSU attack error, but it was the Tigers that found a strong finish by closing out the set on a 6-2 run to take it 25-22, the largest lead of the entire game, and even the match up at 1-1.
Southeastern then found itself facing adversity for the first time this season as Jackson State used a 7-1 run to turn a 7-6 Lady Lion lead into a 13-8 Lady Tiger advantage. SLU answered with four straight, which included two blocks where Bennett combined with Logarbo on one and Bailey on the other and an ace from Brauckmiller, to get back within one, 13-12.
But JSU found its offense again to pull away, going on a 9-2 run to bust open a 22-14 lead. Southeastern tried to battle back, scoring three of the next four, but the Tigers scored the next two to close out the set with a 25-17 score and take the match lead, 2-0.
The Lady Lions found themselves being pushed to the verge of defeat in the fourth set, falling behind 14-8. Southeastern would cut the deficit down, only to see Jackson State come back with a couple points to open the lead back up, eventually taking a 22-17 lead.
Two kills by Brauckmiller and an ace by Gonzalez helped SLU scored four-straight to make it a one point set at 22-21. Jackson State responded with a pair of kills to get onto match point while the Lady Lions would need to fend out three match points in order to keep from suffering their first loss of the season.
Logarbo fought off the first with a kill. Stokley made the Lady Lions two-for-two as the Tigers failed to handle her serve for an ace. Brauckmiller took the Tigers off of match point by getting a kill to tie the score at 24-24. McKelvey then put Southeastern on set point by scoring a kill of her own to put SLU up 25-24.
But back-to-back Lady Lion errors, one on the serve and the other on the attack, put JSU back onto match point at 26-25.
A kill by Brauckmiller got the Tigers off match point for the fourth time in the set, a JSU attack error put Southeastern back onto set point, and a bad set too close to the net by the Tigers finally ended the fourth set with the Lady Lions taking the point by a 28-26 score, forcing the decisive fifth set.
With the fifth set tied at 4-4, a kill by Logarbo was followed by a Tiger attack error and a McKelvey kill to open up a 7-4 lead.
SLU was able to maintain that small edge, pushing it up to as much as four points. Bennett and Logarbo combined on a block to push the lead to 11-7, a Bennett kill made it 12-8, and a service error by the Tigers made it 13-9 Lady Lions.
Jackson State scored two-straight to get back within two, but a kill by Brauckmiller put Southeastern on match point, putting the Tigers in the position SLU was in during the fourth set, having to fight off multiple match points to avoid defeat.
The Tigers battled off one match point, but McKelvey made sure the Lady Lions would leave the Southeastern Showdown 3-0, getting the kill to end the fifth set via a 15-12 score and giving SLU the 3-2 win.
Southeastern ended the match with 58 kills and committed 34 attack errors on 170 total attacks for a .141 team hitting percentage in the match. The Lady Lions also scored on eight service aces and blocked back 16 JSU attacks for points.
Jackson State ended the match with 60 kills to go along with 30 errors on 160 total attacks for a .188 attack percentage. The Tigers tallied two service aces and blocked 12 SLU attacks back.
The Lady Lions now start an eight-match road trip next weekend when the team heads to Conway, Ark. to take on Little Rock and Central Arkansas at the Central Arkansas Invitational. SLU opens the event Friday, taking on the UALR Trojans at 11 a.m. at the Prince Center.
2025 Southeastern Showdown All-Tournament Team:
MVP: Lexi Gonzalez (SLU)
Lexi Gonzalez (SLU)
Anne Brauckmiller (SLU)
India Bennett (SLU)
Kyra McKelvey (SLU)
Aniya Hall (ULM)
Kenzie Behl (ULM)
Gabrielle Hairston (LT)
Shelby Zanders (JSU)
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
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