Southern Miss
Mcneese State
Golden Eagle Volleyball Falls in Five to McNeese State
8/31/2012 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Aug. 31, 2012
LAFAYETTE, La. - The Southern Miss volleyball team managed to post more kills, out-hit and out-block McNeese State, but it wasn't enough as the Cowgirls were able to overcome a two-set deficit in claiming a five set victory with scores of 25-15, 25-18, 23-25, 19-25, 13-15. USM dropped to 1-3.
Halie Ecker led the Golden Eagles with 21 kills followed by Lydia Bonner with 13, Jasmine Crowell had 12 and Rachel Johnson chipped in 11. Elizabeth Rinaudo came up with 21 digs while Kristin Fleming tallied 56 assists to go with seven kills and six digs.
Southern Miss used an attack percentage of .316 while holding McNeese to -.172 in dominating the first set by a score of 25-15. Both team pounded out nine kills apiece, but it was the blocking of the Golden Eagles that enabled the win. Crowell and Ecker tallied three kills each while Crowell and Quinci Hayward had three blocks.
Southern Miss kept its torrid pace in the second set as the Eagles registered 19 kills on 40 attempts for a .325 attack percentage in taking the set 25-18. Bonner led the attack with six kills while Ecker added five and Rachel Johnson chipping in four.
The third set was close throughout as neither team could put any more than a two-point lead. The set consisted of 16 ties and four lead changes. Late in the set, McNeese had taken a 21-19 lead but an Ecker kill and Bonner block knotted the set at 21-21. The teams traded points in keeping the score at 23-23 before McNeese closed out the set on consecutive USM attack errors for the 25-23 win.
McNeese turned the tables against the Eagles as the Cowgirls out-hit USM .351 to .156 in pounding out 16 kills. Southern Miss popped out to a 5-2 lead but McNeese used a 6-2 run to tie the set at 8-8. The Golden Eagles then used a 6-3 run in taking a 14-11 lead. The Cowgirls regrouped and scored five straight points in taking the lead for good. The Cowgirls claimed the fourth set in sending the match to a five set, 25-19.
The fifth set went back and forth for the first eight points before McNeese got a block and a Southern Miss error for the 6-4 lead. Crowell and Fleming combined for a block to get the score to 6-5 before McNeese added back-to-back kills in extending its lead to 8-5. The Eagles fought back and cut the lead to 11-10, before a pair of blocks and kills for the aided McNeese in taking a 14-11 lead. USM then fought off two match points to get within 14-13, but Rachel Cagnina pushed a kill through a block for the 15-13 win.
Amber Fryer led the Cowgirls with 14 kills followed by Megan Carlton with 12, Malina Sanchez added 11 and Bauer chipped in 10. KImberlyn Patterson tallied a match-high 22 digs with Cagnina and Sanchez adding 12 and 11, respectively. Graham had 51 assists.
Southern Miss is back in action on Saturday at 9 a.m. against Houston Baptist and concludes with host Louisiana at 11:30 a.m.
