Southern Miss
Houston Baptist
Golden Eagle Volleyball Team Falls to Houston Baptist in Four
9/1/2012 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 1, 2012
LAFAYETTE, La. - The Southern Miss volleyball team dropped its first match of the day at the Bon Temps Invitational, falling to Houston Baptist in four (3-1).
Against Houston Baptist, freshman outside hitter Lydia Bonner led the Golden Eagles with a match-high 17 kills while senior libero Elizabeth notched 20 digs with Alex Pfefferle coming up with 13 and Mary Pursell adding 11. Sophomore setter Kristen Fleming recorded her first double-double with 45 assists and 12 digs.
The first set featured five ties and a couple of lead changes. Southern Miss led by as many as six points midway through the set. HBU put together a 10-4 run to tie the set at 23-23, but the Golden Eagles were able end the set with HBU error and Jasmine Crowell kill.
The Golden Eagles opened the second set with a 3-0 lead before the Huskies fought back to tie the set at 4-4. The teams battled for the remainder of the set until HBU used a 6-0 run in building a lead, then held on to take the second set 25-21.
Houston Baptist popped out to the early lead to start set three. USM managed to tie the score twice, but HBU kept the Eagles off balanced with timely kills and solid blocking. The Huskies took the third set by a score of 25-20.
The Huskies opened the fourth set scoring eight of the first 10 points in building an 8-2 lead. Southern Miss closed the gap to three points on four occasions with the last coming at 20-17. Houston Baptist then scored four of the next five points for set and match point. However, Southern Miss fought off three match points before Jasmine Casey netted the final kill for the win, 25-21.
Casey led the Huskies with 15 kills while Madeline Gaffney and Caiti Wenger posted 11 and 10 kills, respectively. Casey also hauled in a match-high 25 digs followed by Esther Longoria with 18 and Heather Leaverton had 16.
