Photo by Charlie Luttrell
The Southern Miss Volleyball team came into the Southern Miss Classic with a record of 0-3 after losing to the University of Seattle, University of Denver and
The Southern Miss Volleyball team came into the Southern Miss Classic with a record of 0-3 after losing to the University of Seattle, University of Denver and
Arkansas State took all three sets over Southern Miss in the match on Aug. 6. Freshman Gillian Hidalgo led the Golden Eagles in the first game with 10 kills and a .280 hit percentage.
“It felt good to finally play at home. I’ve been putting a lot of work in and it’s nice to see that I can get that kind of outcome,” Hidalgo said. “It’s always good for the setter to spread the ball out so the other side doesn’t know where it’s going to go, but when I got the ball it felt good. It’s always fun when you get fed the ball.”
In the first set against University of New Orleans, the Golden Eagles jumped out to an early lead but was overcome by the Privateers offense with a 25-20 win. UNO continued to dominate in the second set with a 25-18 win. Senior Ashley Berry had seven kills, however, that wasn’t enough to stop UNO from completing the sweep.
“I thought she went out there and did a great job attacking their line and she had a lot of success,” Coach Stephanie Radecki said.
Junior Piper Matsumoto dished out 23 assists and 12 digs. The Privateers took the second and third set by a 25-18 and 25-19 score, respectively. Redshirt junior Chloe Klusman tallied five kills on a .357 hitting percentage.
In the first set Mississippi State put on a dominant showing with a 25-17. In the second set, the Golden Eagles couldn’t overcome the Bulldogs. Berry stepped up throughout the weekend with 23 kills over the two matches against the Bulldogs and the Privateers and a .429 hitting percentage.
“We’re really young with a lot of new players, 17 young players that haven’t played a whole lot of volleyball together,” Radecki said. “Our returners have never been viewed as big go-to players. They’ve stepped into these huge shoes that need to be filled. One of the biggest goals is to get better every day, and we got better today.”
