University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Southern Miss
Houston
Volleyball Eagles Knock Off Houston, 3-1
11/20/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 20, 2011
Box Score | Box Score in PDF Format 
Senior Ashley Mell turned in a double-double with a match-high 25 kills on a .467 hitting clip to go with 21 digs for Southern Miss (16-15, 10-9) while junior Halie Ecker and senior Lauren Sears added 15 and 10 kills, respectively. Senior libero Lisa Knecht came up with 22 digs while junior Elizabeth Rinaudo and senior Kelsea Seymour added 14 apiece. Seymour also handed out 58 assists in recording a double-double.
"I believe this team was very motivated today to get a win," coach Abbey Sutherland said. "They were confident because they had to bounce back from Friday. In practice they did such a wonderful job of putting the Friday match behind them but also learning from it and still having fun with each other. Overall, I'm really proud of our seniors who are here, want to win and make a name for Southern Miss volleyball. They all stepped up today and played as a team, especially Ashley Mell who made a statement with her final kill of the match to say that she was ready to go out with a bang. I was really proud of her performance."
Katie Norris led Houston (18-11, 11-8) with 17 kills followed by Lucy Charuk and Stephanie Nwachukwu with 13 and 10, respectively. Ingrida Zauere collected a match-high 27 digs and Natalie Keck added 17 for the Cougars.
Southern Miss attacked at a .308 clip in out-hitting the Cougars .225. The Eagles posted a total of 68 kills, 83 digs and 10.0 total team blocks. Houston finished with 53 38 kills, 66 digs and 8.0 team blocks.
Houston jumped out to an early 7-4 lead. The Golden Eagles then scored six of the next 10 points in cutting the lead to 11-10. The Cougars got a kill from Zauere and two from Nwachukwu for the 14-11 lead. From there, Southern Miss scored 11 unanswered points as the Eagles took a 21-14 lead and forced Houston to take their final timeout. After the timeout, freshman Alex Pfefferle served up an ace for the 10th-staright points of the run. Southern Miss took the first set, 25-16.
Southern Miss started the second stanza strong in running out to a 4-1 lead. Houston rallied to take a 10-9 lead behind eight combined kills from four different players. Houston then called a timeout out after the Eagles scored four straight points to regain the lead at 13-10. Out of the timeout, the two teams battled as Houston was able to cut the lead to 18-16 before the Eagles closed out the set on a 7-2 run for the 25-18 win.
The two teams played evenly throughout the third set as the largest lead by either team was four points until late in the set. Out of a Southern Miss timeout and with Houston leading 20-16, Mell put down a kill before back-to-back blocks by the Cougars gave UH a 22-18 lead. USM got within 22-20 on two Ecker kills and a Houston error. Out of Houston's timeout, Knecht served up an ace for a 22-21 score, but Norris planted three kills down the stretch in giving Houston a 25-23 win.
The Golden Eagles started set four with a 6-1 lead and never let up. Houston did get within six, 11-5, early on and that was as close as they would get. The Eagles built as much as an 11-point lead late before Houston fought back within 22-15. Mell ended the set strong as she record three of the final five kills to give the Eagles a 25-17 win. Mell finished the set with 10 of her 25 kills.
Southern Miss concludes the regular season at home on Tuesday with a match against Tulane. The six seniors will be honored in a post-match ceremony.
