The Southern Miss volleyball team took a 3-1 win over Southeastern Louisiana (2-21) on Tuesday night and improved its overall record to 12-12 on the season.
The two key stats that helped Southern Miss in the win was outhitting SLU, .336 percent to .202 percent. The other key stat for Southern Miss was recording five blocks, which Head Coach Stephanie Radecki said was important for the win.
“Tonight, something we did really strongly was our blocking,” Radecki said. “We do contact very high and sometimes when you block really high, your arms because a nice target. Southeastern did a really good job of using our arms and they hit a little bit lower [but Southern Miss] found ways to finish tonight and that was nice.”
Southern Miss jumped ahead quickly in the first set to a 10-4 lead. Up 19-15 later in the set, the Golden Eagles easily closed the set out with a 5-0 run to win 25-15.
In the second set, Southern Miss jumped out to a 12-6 lead but Southeastern rallied, closing the gap to 12-11 with a 5-0 run. Southern Miss and SLU then battled back and forth, with SLU once again making it a one-point game at 20-19 later on in the set. However, Southern Miss managed to pull away with a pair of kills from senior Kylie Grandy and junior Catherine Repsher in the 25-21 win.
Momentum stayed with Southeastern in the third set as the Lions took an early 11-5 lead over Southern Miss. At 18-14, the Lions extended the lead with a 4-0 run and went on to win the set 25-22. In the fourth set, Southeastern kept the set close, trailing just 7-6 at one point. The Golden Eagles were able to take the set with another Grandy kill and finished the final set out with a 5-0 run while winning 25-18.
“I think we battled,” Radecki said. “I think Southeastern really outworked us tonight. Luckily we have enough skill and we found ways to start to execute because I think that Southeastern really could have beat us tonight.”
Grandy finished the game with 22 kills, junior Sarah Bell recorded 30 assists. Sophomore Lainey Aenchbacher also recorded 17 assists on the night.
Looking ahead at the schedule, Southern Miss will play four consecutive home games, including three conference matchups against Marshall, UAB and North Texas.
“We’re sitting seventh right now [and] that’s not a fun place to be, so it’s really important that we focus in,” Radecki said. “We just really need to win some conference matches so that we can advance to conference tournament and that’s our main goal; advance to the conference tournament and win a championship.”
