Southern Miss’ volleyball team traveled to Oxford to compete in the Rebel Invitational Volleyball Tournament hosted by Ole Miss this past weekend. The Golden Eagles finished the weekend with a 2-2 record in four games versus Ohio State, Little Rock, Samford and Ole Miss.
Their first competition on Friday was a back-and-forth battle against the Ohio State Buckeyes in which the Golden Eagles fell just shy of victory, 3-2. After winning sets one and three and losing sets two and four, Southern Miss dropped the fifth and final set by a score of 15-9. Senior Kylie Grandy led the Eagles with 21 kills and a .302 hitting percentage in the match.
The second contest of the weekend pitted Southern Miss against Little Rock on Saturday, and the Golden Eagles handed the Trojans their first defeat of the season. Junior Catherine Repsher registered three service attempts and a .538 hitting percentage, while Grandy tacked on an additional 21 kills to her weekend total.
Southern Miss won their second match on Saturday in another five-set battle against the Samford Bulldogs. After dominating the first two sets, the Eagles dropped sets three and four but salvaged the win with a 15-13 victory in the fifth. The victory set them up to face the host team Ole Miss Rebels on Sunday afternoon.
After building early leads all weekend long, the Golden Eagles got to play the role of comeback kids on Sunday, winning sets three and four to force an epic fifth set showdown. However, the home team Rebels ultimately won 15-10 in the final set. Overall, the Eagles led in assists, digs, blocks and kills against a very talented, one-loss SEC opponent.
Grandy stuffed the stat sheets over the weekend with 83 kills and three aces in the Golden Eagles’ four matches during the invitational. She’s now posted a season total of 121 kills and 10 served aces, and boasts a .301 hitting average through seven contests.
After sweeping three opponents last week and splitting four games this week, the Golden Eagles now have a 5-2 overall record on the young season, placing the team in a tie with UAB for second in the Conference USA standings behind UTSA, Florida International and Rice, who are in a three-way tie for first. Next weekend they will travel to Tallahassee, Florida where they are scheduled for three more contests against Florida A&M, Florida State, and Virginia Commonwealth University.
