Southern Miss Wins 20th, Remains Unbeaten In League Play
10/17/2003 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Files associated with this release:
Box Score
Southern Miss Wins 20th, Remains Unbeaten In League Play
Andrea Bush led Southern Miss with 23.5 points, including 19 kills, three aces and 15 digs. |
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Southern Miss volleyball stuck to its winning ways to take a 3-1 win over Conference USA foe DePaul, Friday, at the USM Payne Center.
With the victory, the Lady Eagles (20-3 overall) picked up their 20th win of the season and stayed a perfect 5-0 in Conference USA play. The wins are the most for a Southern Miss team since 1998, when the team won 21 matches. The total also marks the most wins under third-year Head Coach Santiago Restrepo.
DePaul fell to 10-12 overall and 2-3 in league action.
Southern Miss stormed back from a 24-20 deficit in the first game to go on a 10-1 run, winning 30-25. The Blue Demons answered, however, winning the second game in impressive fashion, 30-22. But the Lady Eagles came back from the break to take control of the match, winning the final games 30-23 and 30-22. In the final two games, Southern Miss improved its attack percentage to .500 in game three and .319 in game four.
"Both teams were feeling each other out in the first two games," Restrepo said. "Those two games could have gone either way. After the second game, we realized what they were doing effectively and we adjusted. We played a lot better in the third and fourth games."
Senior Andrea Bush paced the Southern Miss attack with 23.5 points, including a team-high 19 kills, a team-best 15 digs and a match-high three service aces. Bush was one of four Lady Eagles to register double-digit points in the match.
"We were balanced tonight," Restrepo said. "There's not going to be just one player on our team who is going to go out and dominate every night. We have to have all six players working on all cylinders for us to win matches."
Following Bush, Bridget Files had 21 points, including a match-high eight total blocks. Jazzmien Stephens added 14 points (12 kills) and Nicki Tribble added 13.5 points (13 kills). Amy Truong had 52 assists in the match.
"Tonight's match was awesome," Bush said. "After the second game, we went into the break and talked about what we needed to do. We refocused, and when we came back, we put together two really good games. DePaul's a good team, but we just all played well. We're having fun right now, and that's been good."
For DePaul, Janet Conner had a match-high 21 kills and also added 16 digs. Mandy Moorberg added 19 kills, and Amy Holmes had 14 kills.
The 5-0 league start is the best in school history, and also keeps Southern Miss on top of the league standings.
"We are playing a lot sharper now, and we are much more comfortable on the court," Restrepo said. "It's definitely a good start to the conference."
Southern Miss returns to action on Saturday, hosting Marquette at 7 p.m., in the Payne Center.