Southern Miss
UCF
Volleyball Outlasts UCF in Five
10/15/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 15, 2010
HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- The Southern Miss volleyball team snapped a four-match losing streak, outlasting UCF in five sets by a score of 25-19, 23-25, 25-16, 19-25, 15-12.
Redshirt junior outside hitter Ashley Mell and sophomore outside hitter Halie Ecker tallied 23 and 18 kills, respectively, against the Knights. Juniors Lauren Sears and Amelia Hendrickson provided eight kills apiece.
Junior setter Kelsea Seymour dished out a 57 assists as junior libero Lisa Knecht led five Eagle players in double-digit digs with a match-high 34. Mell collected her 12th double-double with 14 digs as sophomore defensive specialist Elizabeth Rinaudo picked up 13 digs and Ecker added in 16 digs for her seventh double-double and Seymour finished with 13 digs as well.
Southern Miss (9-9, 2-4) posted 12.0 team blocks and four aces, as Knecht tallied two aces. On the blocking front, Sears recorded six stuffs as Mell and Sarah Jane Bowden posted five blocks each.
"We worked really hard in practice this past week," Head Coach Abbey Sutherland said. "Their attitude going into this match was great. We accomplished a couple of goals we set. We won the first set and not that I wanted to go to five sets, but we won in five sets, so I'm proud of the team for accomplishing the goals that they set."
UCF (9-10, 2-5) opened the fifth and decisive game with a kill, which was quickly answered by Mell and an Eagle block put USM up 3-1. Following two Knight attack errors, a Seymour kill off a great Rinaudo dig gave USM the 5-3 lead to cause a UCF timeout. Back-to-back kills by Mell and Ecker made it 7-3 forcing UCF to take its second time out. Ecker responded with another kill for an 8-3 lead heading into the side switch. UCF answered back with two kills, a USM attack error and an ace to cut the lead to 9-7 and a USM timeout. Out of the USM timeout, Mell put down a kill and followed with an ace to push the lead to 11-7. The teams traded kills back-and-forth until Seymour's kill put the Eagles at match point. But UCF would not go quietly as the Knights promptly got a kill and block to get within 14-12. Following the Eagles' last timeout, Mell ended the match with a kill for the 15-12 win.
Southern Miss sprinted out to a 10-3 lead to start the first set. UCF climbed back in the set after USM had three consecutive attack errors to go with three UCF kills. The teams traded kills through the middle of the set and after taking a 20-15 lead, UCF called its final timeout, but it didn't slow down the Eagles as USM collected three kills and a block for a 24-16 lead. UCF fought off three sets points before Ecker got the final kill for a 25-19 win.
USM took the early lead in the second set, but UCF responded finally tying the set at 10-10. A Mell kill put the Eagles ahead, 11-10, but UCF answered with back-to-back kills and a USM attack error for a 13-11 lead. The two teams battled to a 17-17 tie before Southern Miss capitalized on UCF service error and Sears kill for a 19-17 lead. UCF then used an 8-4 run to close out the set, 25-23.
Set three belong to Southern Miss as the Eagles ran out to a 6-3 lead and never looked back. UCF cut the lead to 17-15, but a strong service game by Mell and the Eagles were able to come away with the 25-16 win.
The two teams battled from the start in the fourth set. With the score tied at 4-4, USM was able to push the lead to 7-4, but UCF charged back using a 5-2 run to tie the set at 9-9. USM went up 10-9 on an Ecker kill, but UCF answered with a kill of their own. UCF finally took the lead for good when the Knights got a big block and kill in taking a 12-10 lead. USM was able to cut the lead to one on several occasions, but each time UCF had an answer and came away with the 25-19 win.
"We do our best when it's a team effort and distribute the ball to more than just our outside hitters," Sutherland said. "At times we had some clutch kills from people other than our outside hitters. Our defense was a total team effort. We can through as a team."
Southern Miss returns to action on Sunday when the Golden Eagles host UTEP with first serve at 1 p.m.
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