Southern Miss volleyball took care of business in the 3-0 win over Louisiana Tech on Sunday. The Golden Eagles made quick work of the Lady Techsters, defeating them by scores of 25-17, 25-14 and 25-17.
In addition to the win, senior Sarah Bell inched closer to becoming the school’s all-time career record holder in assists.
“It always good to get a conference win, especially in three,” Head Coach Stephanie Radecki said. “I was really proud of our offense, they did a really nice job and were really efficient.”
In the opening set, the two teams were tied at 12, but Southern Miss broke away on a 7-0 run to seal the win in the set. In the second set, Southern Miss had its way again and opened the set with a 10-9 lead. The Golden Eagles had another 7-0 run to go up 17-9 and close the set out with an 8-3 run. Much like the first two sets, Southern Miss made quick work of LA Tech, jumping out to a 20-9 lead. LA Tech managed to battle back with a 7-3 run to cut the deficit 22-16, but Southern Miss held on for the 25-17 set victory.
Southern Miss’ offense dominated against LA Tech, out hitting the Lady Techsters .362 percent to .114 percent, but the focus of the day belonged to Bell.
“It’s unbelievable for a player to accomplish that. We would have loved for her to do her on our home court, but the way it’ll fall now it’ll be on the road, but we will recognize her at the next home game,” Radecki said. “It’s just a cool accomplishment and not a lot of players have the opportunity to have such a career like that.”
Bell finished the day with 35 assists and is now second all-time in assists, sitting at 4,744. Bell is now 13 assists short of breaking the record set by Crystal Zane in 2002.
“She’s been my setter for the past four years,” senior Kylie Grandy said. “We’ve played side by side since freshman year, so that’s going to be really cool to see her get that milestone. I’m excited for her because I’ve seen how hard she’s worked for the past four years.”
For Bell, her main priority and focus is to win a conference championship.
“I’m just really excited because coming here I never imagined that I could be the assist record holder for the school, so I’m pretty pumped about it,” Bell said. “I could have no individual awards and as long as we win at the end, that’s going to be sweeter than any individual award I could get.”
Southern Miss will play Alabama A&M on Tuesday and at the time of this paper’s release, Bell will be the all-time career record holder in assists for the Southern Miss volleyball program.
