HAMMOND, La. – The Southeastern Louisiana University Volleyball team defended home court once again, marking the team's fifth consecutive victory with a three-set sweep of Nicholls, 25-18, 25-15, 25-17, in the University Center Saturday.
Southeastern (8-11, 5-1 SLC) collected its fifth win of Southland Conference play, defeating Nicholls (9-10, 2-4 SLC) at home. The Lions' sweep on Saturday was SLU's third three-set win of the season.
After a six-block match against McNeese,
Gracie Brown put together the best performance of her collegiate career against Nicholls. The sophomore posted match highs of nine kills, six aces, six blocks, and a .643 hitting percentage. The Bryant, Ark. native's six service aces are a career high.
Melina Gonzalez and
Keira Beverly tallied seven kills apiece.
Abigail Bailey and
Carissa Young ended the match with six kills each, with the pair posting three and four blocks, respectively.
Ashley Richardson paced all student-athletes in Saturday's match with 26 assists.
Lindsey Wickersham earned a career-high 22 digs, while also giving her the match-leading mark.
For Nicholls, Amelie Shalfoon held the team-leading mark with eight kills. Isabella Padilla's 20 assists were the top mark for the visitors. Natalie Navarro totaled a dozen digs to pace the Colonels. Maya Schirmer notched a team-best five blocks to help Nicholls finish with eight blocks.
The visitors started off well in the early going of the opening set, 7-3. The Lions, however, turned the tables to tie the score at 10-10. With the match tied at 17-all, SLU went ahead with an 8-1 run to win the first set.
With the second set tied at 12-12, Southeastern strung together a three-point edge with back-to-back kills by Bailey, followed by a Brown-Young block, 15-12. With a 19-15 lead, the Lions scored six straight points, including five aces from Brown and a Gonzalez kill. Southeastern kept its momentum going in the third set, leading by as many as nine. The Lions proceeded to close out the sweep from there to wrap up its two-match home slate.
After the Lions' win over Nicholls, SLU will head to San Antonio, Texas, to take on UIW (7-8, 5-1 SLC) on Wednesday, Oct. 14, at 6 p.m. Southeastern will come back home for a three-match homestand, beginning with a contest against HCU (2-16, 0-6 SLC) on Saturday, Oct. 17. Next week's matches will be televised on ESPN+.
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 Lions Volleyball, follow @LionUpVB on X and Instagram or like /SLUathletics on Facebook.
