Golden Eagle Volleyball Falls to Rice in Five
9/25/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 25, 2011
Box Score | Box Score in PDF Format
Amelia Hendrickson and Halie Ecker led way with 12 kills each with Ashley Mell and Sarah Jane Bowden adding 11 kills apiece and Lauren Sears chipping in 10. Lisa Knecht recorded a match-high 31 digs while Ecker and Hendrickson added 23 and 20 digs, respectively. Kelsea Seymour registered 45 assists and 13 digs. Elizabeth Rinaudo also added 13 digs.
Rice's Laurie McNamara led all players with 18 kills while Nancy Cole and Jillian Humphrey added 13 and 10 kills, respectively. Megan Murphy had 53 kills and 22 digs. Megan White also had 22 digs and McNamara collected 20 digs.
There was only one tie and the Golden Eagles never trailed in the first set on their way to a 25-20 win.
Southern Miss started out strong in the second set and led 11-6. The Owls began chipping away at the USM lead and after using their final timeout of the set, outscored USM 9-4 to tie the set at 21-21. Rice then closed out the set with a 5-3 for a 26-24 win.
The Golden Eagles took the third set 25-19 collecting 15 kills on .333 hitting clip. There were 10 ties and four lead changes. With the score tied at 14-14, Southern Miss scored 11 of the last nine 16 points for the win.
Southern Miss led early to start the fourth set. USM led 10-7 before Rice used a 7-3 run to take a 14-13 lead. The Golden Eagles tied the set at 14-14 before Rice finished the set with a 10-4 run to force a fifth set with the 25-18 win.
Rice took a 3-1 lead to start the fifth set. USM tied the set at 3-3 and from there, the two teams battled back and forth for the next eight points. With the set tied at 7-7, Rice scored three straight points on a USM service error and two McNamara kills. Southern Miss got the score to 10-8, but Rice was able to finish the set scoring the last five points for the 15-8 win.
Southern Miss returns home for the first time in four weeks to host Memphis on Friday and UAB on Sunday.