LAKE CHARLES-- McNeese volleyball picked up its second win over New Orleans this season with a straight set (25-21, 26-24, 25-21) Southland Conference victory Thursday night.
McNeese (9-17, 5-6 SLC) will host Southeastern Louisiana at 12:30 p.m. Saturday in its home finale. Seniors
Bridget Justis,
Hailee Showers and
Rebecca Korenek will be honored prior to the match.
Junior
Rae Myers led all players with 13 kills on the night while Showers posted a season high 12 kills. Showers has now recorded double figure kills in the last three matches. Four Cowgirls were credited with 10 or more digs and were led by 15 from Justis. Freshman
Keegan Nelms and
Angela McGownd had 13 and 11, respectively and setter
Alexandra Aguilera picked up 10. Aguilera also had a match high 43 assists for her 13
th double-double this season.
McNeese took the lead in the first two sets, holding a 5-1 advantage early in the opening set. With McNeese leading 11-7 in the first set, UNO would outscore the Cowgirls 5-1 to tie the set at 12 apiece. McNeese regained the lead and made a run of its own and would eventually end the match on three kills, one from
Jenny D'Alessandro and two by Myers.
The Cowgirls opened the second set with a 6-1 lead before extending it to 15-5. UNO would go down that easy as they would come back to tie the set at 19 all. McNeese looked like it would cruise to the second set win after scoring four straight points to take a 23-19 lead. UNO would return the favor and score the next four points on a service ace and three Cowgirl errors to tie the set at 23. A UNO service error gave McNeese a 24-23 lead but a kill by the Privateers on the next serve tied it at 24. Myers put down a kill for a 25-24 Cowgirl lead and a UNO attacking error gave McNeese the 26-24 second set win and a 2-0 overall match lead.
McNeese trailed early in the second set until a block assists by Korenek and Aguilera gave the Cowgirls a 9-8 lead. McNeese would extend its lead to 17-11 but five straight McNeese hitting errors allowed UNO back into the set with McNeese holding a 17-16 lead. The set would knot up two more times before the Cowgirls would outscore the Privateers 7-2 to take the third set 25-21 and the overall match.
UNO (4-20, 1-10 SLC) was led in kills by Kaitlyn Grice who had 11. Samantha Urine led all players with 23 digs.
