Volleyball Closes Out Regular Season at Old Dominion

HATTIESBBURG, Miss. -- The Southern Miss (17-9, 9-5 SBC) volleyball team will close out the regular season this week against Old Dominion (11-14, 6-6 SBC) in Norfolk, Va. Both Thursday and Friday's match will be played inside the ODU Volleyball Center.

Thursday's 5:30 p.m. CST first serve will commence the start of a new series for the two schools. The Monarchs didn't start playing volleyball until the 2020-21 season and now the two will be playing with Sun Belt Conference Tournament seeding on the line. The Golden Eagles are one spot out of earning a bye along with Texas State in the West Division but need both South Alabama and Troy to falter this weekend. Old Dominion is in a fight with App State to hold on to third place in the East.

The Golden Eagles are coming off a weekend where they split against Louisiana on the road. The Ragin' Cajuns took the Thursday match in a four-set match that saw three of the four sets end with both schools within two points of each other. Sophomore Mia Wesley muscled her way to 18 kills and 15 digs to notch her seventh double-double of the season. The SBC leader in service aces also fired six aces to lead both teams. Southern Miss also got 10 kills from Cara Atkinson and nine from Gillian Hidalgo.

Southern Miss bounced back on Friday to take a tightly contested five-setter in front a packed Earl K. Long Gym. Wesley exploded for 27 kills -- the second-highest kill output of the season for her -- on a .328 hitting percentage. She also added seven digs, four blocks and three aces. Sophomore Megan Harris continued to dominate the SBC on the defensive side of ball and has upped her league-leading digs per set to 4.40 and total digs to 431. Kenzie Smith now ranks second in assists per set (10.69) and total assists (1,048). Wesley leads the SBC in aces per set (.67), attacks per set (13.14), kills per set (4.76), points (552.5), points per set (5.64), service aces (66) and total kills (466). Nationally, she ranks third in aces per set, attacks per set and points. She ranks eighth in kills per set and fifth in total kills.

The Monarchs are winners of three of their last four, including two wins against Georgia State last weekend. Both wins came via a 3-1 score in Atlanta, Ga. Myah Conway leads Old Dominon offensively with 302 kills. The Monarchs have four other players with at least 100 kills, while Conway leads the group in kills per set (3.93). Jamie Bissmeyer (242) and Anna Burkhardt (206) have teamed up for 468 digs to pace Old Dominion. Bailey Burgess leads the way with 89.0 blocks and an average of 1.01 blocks per set.

The Friday match will be streamed on ESPN+.

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Volleyball Closes Out Regular Season at Old Dominion

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Players Mentioned

Gillian Hidalgo