Volleyball Completes Reverse Sweep of Arkansas State

Friday, October 20

Jonesboro, Ark. / First National Bank Arena

6 p.m.

Southern Miss

8-13,3-7Sun Belt

Arkansas State

12-10,2-8Sun Belt

Southern Miss.

Arkansas St.

Volleyball Completes Reverse Sweep of Arkansas State

10/20/2023 10:30:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

JONESBORO, Ark.-After trailing by two sets, Southern Miss (8-13, 3-7 Sun Belt) rallied with three straight victories to complete a reverse sweep against Arkansas State (12-10, 2-8 Sun Belt) Friday night in the First National Bank Arena.

The win snapped a three-game losing streak and marked the program's first reverse sweep since Jan. 29, 2021 against Southeastern Louisiana.

"I am super proud of our team and their fight," head coach Jenny Hazelwood said "We have been struggling with confidence lately and that's normal when you play so many close matches and lose by two, and we've had a lot of those. They are human beings and it can be easy to feel not confident, and they just made that switch to say, 'we are going to play like we know we can do this'."

Southern Miss forced a deciding set, but trailed by three in the period. Junior Mia Wesley stepped up in the moment with two kills to tie the game and after freshman setter Franky Panunzio gave Southern Miss a set point with her third kill of the match, Wesley iced the game with a final kill.

The Orem, Utah native led the way for the Golden Eagles' attack, notching a season-high 24 kills on a .310 clip, while also adding seven digs and four total blocks.

"This win was a really good team win for us," Wesley said. "I think it was our first step to having a successful rest of the season and a really big conference win that can help us with our tournament seeding. I'm overall really proud of the team and I think we worked together to get this win."

Cailin Demps followed with nine kills and junior Cara Atkinson sparked the team coming from the bench with eight kills.

Wesley cited junior Reagan Leinen for giving the team motivation in its comeback efforts.

"We have a lot of upperclassmen on the court and Reagan [Leinen] was like, 'it's our senior year and we can go all out and leave it all on the floor or we can go home with an L'," Wesley said. "We didn't want to do that so I feel like everyone was on the same page at this time that we had to go all out in effort and do everything we could to get this win."

Southern Miss started the game with an early lead as junior Ari Barksdale tallied a kill and block. Atkinson contributed three kills, but Arkansas State powered ahead on a 9-2 scoring run on its way to a 25-19 first set victory.

Arkansas State took control of the second set by jumping ahead on an 8-0 lead to start the period. Wesley gave Southern Miss' attack a spark later with a pair of kills and a service ace, but the Red Wolves' advantage was too much to overcome as they closed out the set 25-18.

The Golden Eagles' comeback started as they responded with a 7-2 run to start the third set. Setter Ella Voorhees scored on two service aces and the duo of Wesley and Atkinson added two kills. However, the Red Wolves tied the game with five consecutive points and claimed the lead.

Southern Miss chipped away as Wesley notched a pair of kills and a service ace from Harris gave the Golden Eagles a 21-20 lead. Panunzio dumped a ball down mid court for a kill to push the Golden Eagles to set point and Wesley capitalized the set 25-23 with her eleventh kill of the game.

Southern Miss trailed by as many as seven points in the fourth set as the Red Wolves looked to end the match, but Harris shaved the lead with two consecutive service aces and Wesley connected on a block with Leinen and added a kill to narrow the lead. After three straight mishaps from Arkansas State, Wesley and Demps closed the comeback with two kills for a 25-22 victory.

By claiming the fifth set 15-12, Southern Miss won its first game this season that went past three sets.

"It was just a lot of fun as coaches to watch them play the sport they love and it just becomes easier when you play your game, when you're relaxed, and when you're aggressive too," Hazelwood said. "I am just proud of how we responded to our match last night when it seemed that not much could go right."

Up Next

The Golden Eagles travel to Atlanta, Ga. next weekend on Oct. 27-28 to take on Georgia State.