Southern Miss
Louisiana-Lafayette
Volleyball Eagles Defeat Louisiana, 3-1
9/10/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 10, 2010
OXFORD, Miss. - The Southern Miss volleyball team snapped a three-match losing streak in defeating Louisiana-Lafayette, 3-1 (25-9, 18-25, 25-19, 25-17) in the first match of the Magnolia Classic Friday.
Junior Ashley Mell led all players with 17 kills while sophomore Halie Ecker and junior Lauren Sears also tallied double-digit kills with 16 and 10, respectively apiece. Junior setter Kelsea Seymour paced the Golden Eagle offense with 46 assists and finished with 12 digs. Junior libero Lisa Knecht led the team with a career-high 32 digs.
Southern Miss attacked at a .241 clip, while holding the Ragin' Cajuns to just .119. The Eagles finished the match with 59 kills, 55 assists, 87 digs and 6.0 total team blocks. Louisiana totaled 38 kills, 36 assists, four aces, 74 digs and 7.0 team blocks.
The first set was close early, until Lauren Broom kick started the Eagle offense with a kill to begin a 7-0 run in putting Southern Miss a head 12-4. Louisiana got a point courtesy of a Golden Eagle attack error, before taking a double-digit lead at 16-5. Southern Miss outscored UL 10-3 in cruising to a 25-9 win.
The Ragin' Cajuns jumped out to a 5-2 lead in the second set thanks to five Golden Eagle miscues. Back-to-back kills by Mell cut the lead to 5-4. From there, both teams traded points finally tying the set at 11-11, before Louisiana scored two consecutive points with an attack error and kill to go up, 13-11. Down 15-12, Southern Miss was forced to take a timeout. The Eagles responded with a 4-0 run on two Ecker kills, a Broom and Amelia Hendrickson block and a UL service error to take their first lead in the set, 16-15. Louisiana quickly tied the set, 16-16, off a kill. Another Seymour and Broom kills forced UL to take a timeout, trailing 18-17. Louisiana finished the set on a 7-0 run for a 25-18 win.
Sears got the Eagles off to a solid start in the third set with a kill. UL tied the set on a kill of its own, but another Sears's kill and a solo stuff by Mell put the Golden Eagles up, 3-1. UL cut the lead to 6-5, taking advantage of three USM errors and a kill. Southern Miss eventually pushed its lead to 10-6. Louisiana cut the lead to 14-13, capitalizing off three Eagle errors and two kills. The teams battled to an 18-18 tie, but Southern Miss outscored the Ragin' Cajuns, 7-1 down the stretch to take the 25-19 win. Mell and Sears combined for 11 of 15 kills during the set.
Back-to-back kills by Sears and Mell started the fourth set, but UL got a block and an ace to tie the set at 2-2. Following a UL service error and kill, the set was knotted at 3-3. Southern Miss pushed ahead, 5-3 on two kills by Mell. The Ragin' Cajuns kept within striking distance but Southern Miss put down three straight kills to take a 10-6 lead and forced UL to take a timeout. An Ecker kill gave the Eagles an 11-6 lead. UL was able to get within two points on three occasions with the last coming at 16-14 before Southern Miss ended the set with a 9-3 run. Six different Eagles recorded a kill, led by Ecker with six in the set.
Southern Miss returns to the court at 7 p.m., to face host Ole Miss.
