CONWAY, Ark.— McNeese volleyball advanced to the semifinals of the Southland Conference Tournament for the first time since 2008 following its 3-1 (25-22, 25-23, 23-25, 25-15) win over New Orleans Friday. The Cowgirls will face top seed and regular season champion Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at noon Saturday.
The match will be streamed live on the Southland Conference Digital Network, available at
Southland.org/watch and on the league's mobile and tablet apps. Greg Miller and Chris Mycoskie will handle play-by-play duties. Links can also be found on the front page of the McNeese Athletics website at mcneesesports.com.
Seniors
Malina Sanchez,
Amber Fryer and
Kelly Graham carried the Cowgirls to the victory. Sanchez recorded a match high 17 kills while Fryer put down 14, one shy of her season high Fryer and
Rae Myers both led McNeese with four blocks apiece. Sanchez also recorded her 17
th double-double of the season by picking up 11 digs as well. Graham was on the other end of the kills, dishing out the assists. Graham also had a match high with 46 assists, her 13
th match of the season with 40 or more assists. Junior libero
Bridget Justis tied her career high with 29 digs and
The Cowgirls got off to a slow start and trailed 19-15 before McNeese would score five of the next six points to tie the set at 20 all. After a New Orleans attack error tied the set at 22, McNeese scored the final three points of the set on kills by Myers and
Rebecca Korenek to give McNeese a 24-22 lead. A solo block by freshman
Ebony Lewis gave McNeese the 25-22 first set win.
McNeese jumped out to a 3-0 lead in set two and held the lead until UNO tied the set at seven apiece. The set would consist of six more ties before the Cowgirls would teak a 15-13 lead on kills by Graham and Sanchez. The lead would last long as UNO would once again tie the set at 15 and then would take a 21-20 lead. A kill by Myers sparked a run by the Cowgirls that would give them a 24-23 lead. Following a McNeese timeout, Sanchez put down the final kill of the set.
Following the break, UNO avoided the straight set loss with a 25-23 third set win. McNeese came back with a commanding fourth set 25-15 win to take the overall match 3-1. The Cowgirls hit .273 in the fourth set on 14 kills with only two errors.
A Korenek kill to open the fourth set was all McNeese needed to get them going as the Cowgirls cruised to a 25-15 fourth set win and a 3-1 victory over UNO.
