Southern Miss
Rice
Lady Eagle Volleyball Team Drops Conference Opener
9/21/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 21, 2007
HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- - The Southern Miss volleyball team lost its conference opener in four games, 3-1 (30-15, 28-30, 30-23, 30-28), snapping a six-match winning streak.
Ashley Petrinec paces Southern Miss (9-8, 0-1) with a double-double with 13 kills and 17 digs, followed by Morgan Johnson with 11 kills. Jillian Neave added 16 digs and 38 assists, while Maia Ivanova had 13 digs, Amy Flarity and Mari Ruddick added 11 and 10 digs, respectively.
Jennifer McClean led Rice with a match-high 23 kills and 24 digs. Jessica Holderness pounded down 21 kills and 16 digs. Meredith Schamun added 16 digs, while Kristina Denneman and Tracey Lam recorded 15 digs each.
Rice (6-8, 1-1) dominated play in game one, jumping out to an 11-2 lead and not looking back. The Owls put down 16 kills, while Southern Miss managed only five kills and hit a -.065 in falling 30-15.
Southern Miss came out strong in game two, building an 18-13 lead. The Golden Eagles continued to lead the Owls down the stretch, but Rice fought back to cut the lead to one, 29-28, but the game ended on a Rice attack error that led to a 30-28 win for Southern Miss. Southern Miss finished game two with 13 kills, while Rice pounded out 20 kills but had 14 attack errors also.
Both teams battled back and forth for much of game three. With Southern Miss leading, 13-9, Rice then ran off five straight points, taking a 14-13 lead. The Lady Eagles tied the game at 15-15, but Rice was able to push ahead 18-15 on two Eagle attack errors. The Eagles trailed by one point, 20-19, when Rice used an 8-2 to control the game down the stretch for a 30-23 win.
Southern Miss scored the first point of game four, but Rice came right back to tie the game at 1-1. From there, Rice pushed ahead 4-2, but the Eagles battled back to tie the game at 4-4. The Owls finally pushed ahead 12-7, before USM cut the lead to two, 12-10. Rice ran its lead to five again, 16-11, before the Eagles closed to within one, 17-16, after a 5-1 run. Rice answered each run from the Golden Eagles and went on to win 30-28.
Southern Miss finished the match with 49 kills, while Rice pounded out 71. Southern Miss returns to action on Sunday, when the Golden Eagles travel to Houston for a 1 p.m., match.
