University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Southern Miss
Louisiana Tech
Volleyball Eagles Split Matches in Houston on Friday
9/16/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 16, 2011
Match 1 Box Score | Match 2 Box Score
Match 1 Box Score 
| Match 2 Box Score
The Golden Eagle volleyball team hit .349 en route to a three-game sweep of Louisiana Tech (25-13, 25-19, 25-9) Friday morning at Sharp Gym.
Junior outside hitter Halie Ecker led all players with 12 kills on .435 hitting as seniors Amelia Hendrickson and Sarah Jane (SJ) Bowden posted 11 kills apiece on .476 and .333 hitting, respectively. Senior Ashley Mell chipped four kills in eclipsing the 1,000-kill plateau.
Senior setter Kelsea Seymour dished out 38 assists and recorded six kills while senior libero Lisa Knecht led all players with 18 digs as Hendrickson and Seymour chipped in 11 digs each. Lauren Sears paced the team with five total blocks and led the team with three aces.
Clara Vio and Caitlin Germany led the Techsters with seven kills apiece. Bianca Bin recorded 12 assists and Nataliya Panova led the team with nine digs.
Southern Miss scored five of the first six points in taking a 5-1 lead. Louisiana Tech fought back to within 5-4 before a Tech service error and kills by Bowden and Ecker gave the Eagles an 8-4 advantage. Tech got the with three before USM used a 10-4 run to extend the lead to 20-11. Louisiana Tech got two more points before the Eagles ended the set back-to-back kills by Ecker and Bowden for the 25-13 win.
The second stanza remained even early on until an Ecker and Bowden kill plus a Tech error gave USM the 9-6 lead. After that, both teams battled back and forth as Louisiana Tech cut the lead to 12-11. Two Sears' kills and a Hendrickson kill made it 15-11. The Golden Eagles were able to maintain the lead for the remainder of the set as Mell ended the set with a put-away for the 25-19 win.
Southern Miss broke open the third set early, taking the 6-1 lead aided by kills from Mell, Hendrickson and Ecker. An Ecker kill, two aces by Sears, a Bowden kill and Hendrickson ace pushed the lead to 11-3. From there, Southern Miss never looked back as the Eagles cruised to a 25-9 win.
Against the host, the Eagles jumped out to a set lead but were down in the three close sets that followed (25-15, 21-25, 20-25, 15-25).
The squad hit just .149 including a mark of .043 the second but remained relentless in their attack throughout. Seymour again paced the Eagles in assists with 41 while Mell added 14 kills to her now 1,000-plus kill career.
In the first set, Southern Miss and the Huskies battled point for point to a 12-10 score before the Black and Gold began to pull away. A kill by Mell mae it 13-10 and the Eagles ran off to a 15-10 lead. The Huskies battled back to make it 20-15 but five consecutive attack errors including a block by Bowden locked up the set for the Eagles.
The second set featured 10 tie scores and six lead changes but Southern Miss came out in the wrong side of a tight 25-21 decision highlighted by a 4-0 run and four 3-0 runs to close out the set.
Sets three and four were closed out in similar fashion as the Huskies found their attacking stride in the fourth, posting a .484 attacking percentage.
Southern Miss returns to the court tomorrow for their final match of the tournament when they take on Southeastern Louisiana at 11 a.m.
