Southern Miss Volleyball Team Downs Green Wave in Four
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The Southern Miss volleyball team captured a 3-1 win over Tulane (25-17, 23-25, 25-19, 25-14) Wednesday night in Conference USA action in Reed Green Coliseum.
The Golden Eagles improve to 11-9 and 4-5-0 in C-USA while the Green Wave falls to 5-16 and 2-6 in the league.
"I thought we played very well and we played as a team,” Coach Abbey Sutherland said. “The last several matches Kelsea has done a good job of leading the team and letting them know what she expects of them. All of the hitters have responded and stepped up."
Redshirt junior outside hitter Ashley Mell (Yorba Linda, Calif.) led all players with 18 kills as junior middle blocker Lauren Sears (Ashburn, Va.) connected on 16 of her 27 swings to hit .556. Junior middle blocker Amelia Hendrickson notched seven kills.
Junior setter Kelsea Seymour (Long Beach, Calif.) dished out 50 assists as Lisa Knecht led the defense with a team-high 19 digs and sophomore Halie Ecker (Moline, Ill.) picked up 12 digs. Rounding out the defense for Southern Miss, Seymour, Elizabeth Rinaudo and Mell came up with 11 digs apiece.
Both teams recorded the 10.0 team blocks as Mell led Southern Miss with five and Sarah Jane Bowden (Sioux City, Iowa) and Sears tallied four stuffs apiece.
“Lauren Sears really stepped up tonight and pretty much everything she touched turned to gold,” Sutherland said. “She has some amazing blocks and was aggressive in her swings. I’m really proud of her. We passed well and that allowed us to get the ball to her.”
The first game remained close throughout, until Ecker’s kill sparked a 4-0 run giving Southern Miss the 15-11 lead. An ace from Seymour, two put-aways from Mell and one from Hendrickson pushed Southern Miss up 19-13 forcing Tulane to use a timeout. Out of the timeout, Izabela Grot pounded down a kill to stop the Eagles’ momentum, but USM answered with a kill from Mell to keep the lead at 20-14. Tulane cut the lead to five, 21-16, but the Eagles ended the set with on 4-1 run for the 25-17 win. Mell collected five kills as Sears picked up four.
Tulane opened the second set scoring the first two points before Sears put down a kill for the Eagles. The Golden Eagles had to play catch up for most of the set as Tulane ran out to a 12-6 lead. Coming out of a timeout, Southern Miss began to chip away at the Green Wave lead as the two teams began trading kills. Leading 15-10, two kills from Mell and one from Bowden and two Green Wave errors highlighted a 4-0 run for the Eagles to tie the set at 15-15. However, Tulane came right back with a four unanswered points to push the lead to 19-15 and a USM timeout. The teams traded two kills and USM got an ace to tie the set again at 20-20. Tulane was able to maintain the lead for the remainder of the set and pulled out a 25-23 win. Sears tallied five kills and Mell added four.
The third set started in the same fashion as the first with both teams battling early. Four consecutive Southern Miss points put the Golden Eagles up 15-9. Out of the Tulane timeout, Tulane rallied to cut the lead to just three, 19-16, while forced the Eagles to burn a timeout. Out of the time, Tulane got a block to get the score to 19-17 before two Ecker kills and Knecht ace pushed the score to 22-17. After trading kills USM got a break with a Tulane error before Mell ended the set on a kill for the 25-19 win. Sears and Bowden picked up four kills each in the set as Knecht led the defense with six digs.
Tulane scored the first point to start set four before Ecker served the next 10 consecutive points to put the Golden Eagles up 10-1. During the run, USM collected four kills and an ace. Southern Miss extended its lead to double digits, 16-4. Tulane could not get the score under 10 for the remainder of the set as Southern Miss went to claim a 25-14 win. Mell totaled six kills as the team collected 5.0 team blocks and 11 digs.
Southern Miss concludes its homestand with visits from Marshall on Friday and East Carolina on Sunday. The contest with the Herd is scheduled for a 7 p.m., first serve and Sunday’s match start is slated for 1 p.m.
