LAFAYETTE, La. – The Southeastern Louisiana University Volleyball team secured the first win of the season against Memphis, 28-26, 25-12, 19-25, 25-23, at the Sawyer Camillo Memorial Classic at E.K. Long Gym in Lafayette, La. Friday.
SLU (1-4) played its best match of the season against the Tigers (0-4) on the second day of the tournament, hosted by UL Lafayette. After claiming a close first set, Southeastern powered past Memphis in the second set before winning the fourth set and the match Friday.
Kyra McKelvey and
Keira Beverly put together their strongest performances of the season, combining for 33 kills in the four-set contest. McKelvey matched a season-high with 17 kills, while also chipping in with seven digs and a match-high four blocks. Beverly's 16 kills were a career-high mark, doing so at a .484 attack percentage. Beverly and
Ainsley Driska ended the win with three blocks each.
Ashley Richardson posted a career-best 45 assists, surpassing her previous high of 34 assists.
Abigail Bailey held the team-leading mark of nine digs, also notching two service aces. Freshman
Gracie Mann tallied nine kills to reach a season-high mark.
Memphis' Amanda Hardt led all players in Friday's match with 20 kills and 12 digs. Abigail Schlueter tied the match-high mark with a dozen digs. Sydney Marshall had the most assists among the Tigers with 34 set-ups on the day. Lillian Hamilton and Arianna Mongare had three blocks each to lead the team.
Memphis led for most of the first set, but SLU remained close until the set approached its conclusion. Down 23-21, kills by Richardson and Beverly tied things up. After a point and back-to-back attack errors from Memphis, SLU had its first lead of the set, 25-24. After Memphis tied it 26-all, the Tigers made another error, followed by a Driska-McKelvey block to give the Lions the first set, 28-26.
After Memphis claimed the first point of set two, SLU took a lead and never gave it back, leading by as many as 13, 25-12. The Tigers found their footing in the third frame, but the Lions regained momentum in the fourth set to seal the deal, 25-23. McKelvey and Beverly combined for double-digit kills in the fourth set.
The Lions will be on the road for one more match before returning to the University Center. Southeastern is set to visit Southern Tuesday at 6 p.m. at H.W. Moody Intramural Sports Complex in Baton Rouge, La. Live stats for Tuesday's match will be available on the volleyball schedule page at
www.LionSports.net.
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.
