Southern Miss Volleyball kicked off the 2023 season by hosting a Black and Gold Scrimmage on Saturday. The scrimmage saw intense energy in front of the fans and family who chose to come out to watch the Lady Eagles scrimmage.
Black dominated Gold early in the first set by a score of 17-14. The intensity rose throughout the first set, with the Gold team making a comeback, but Black sealed the deal and won with a score of 25-20
“Each team were responding as they did. The first set was not close, but the gold team came back and played much better,” Southern Miss head coach Jenny Hazelwood said.
Set two got off to a good start with each team working together. Gold redeemed themselves from the first set, starting to jump to a 9-4 advantage fast. The Gold would ride that momentum and go on and win the second set 25-22.
“Two practices every day, we’re in the gym working really hard and being able to be on the court and seeing the results we are getting from the hard work we put in is such an awarding feeling,” Mia Wesley said.
Going into the third set, tensions were high as Black and Gold settled their tiebreaker for the in-house scrimmage. Black got a fast start with an 11-3 score before the break. After the break, Gold made a comeback with a seven-point streak, but Black came out on top with 25-19.
In the fourth set, the Black and Gold stayed neck and neck in scoring and kept the crowd on their toes. Gold took the fourth set 25-21, tying the series 2-2, leading into the fifth set tiebreaker. They kept the crowd engaged by going back and forth with each other.
Gold won the series by winning set five 17-15.
“I am impressed with the entire team. The competitiveness of the team and everybody really wanting to win was such a fun feeling and a good environment to be in. With the sets we are running I feel as if we are mixing them up a lot especially with the diversity that our offense has, we are always trying to run different people on different sets.” Wesley said.
Hazelwood is now in her second year at the University of Southern Mississippi as the volleyball coach. She has seen much improvement in this scrimmage since last season.
“We focus a lot on serving and passing, where our setters can run their offense. I feel like we have a lot of offense of weapons so when we are passing well there is nothing that a team can do about it.” Hazelwood said.
The player of the game is Wesley. She had five strikes, 24 Kills, and a pct of .274. Aysu Dalgoullari also had a great game with 21 Kills and 13 digs.
The Lady Eagles have improved their blocking and communication tremendously from previous performances. Now, Hazlewood is ready to take on the season.
