HATTIESBURG, Miss.—McNeese volleyball opened the season with a tough 3-1 (25-21, 9-25, 9-25, 17-25) loss to Southern Miss in its season opener.
 
The jitters were present early on in the opening set in which the Cowgirls trailed 6-2. After two straight points by McNeese, the Cowgirls cut the lead to 6-4. Southern Miss held onto the lead until a long rally that ended in the Cowgirls' favor that resulted in a Hailee Showers kill that gave McNeese a 13-11 lead.
 
"We had five players who played in their first Division I match and it was against a quality opponent on their home court, and they all did a great job," said head coach Ashleigh Fitzgerald. "We are excited for the opportunity to bounce back and play hard again on Saturday."
 
The Cowgirls' defense continued to come up with dig after dig in set1 and Jenny D'Alessandro's monster kill off an overpass extended the Cowgirl lead to 19-14. Freshman Keegan Nelms' kill extended the McNeese lead to 21-15. Freshman Haley Schneider picked up a solo block for a 24-20 lead then gave the Cowgirls the first set win on a kill.
 
The Cowgirls struggled in both passing and blocking in sets two and three, dropping both sets by identical scores of 25-9 to trail the overall match by a 2-1 score.
 
Southern Miss took the lead in the fourth set and never looked back.  McNeese stayed within reach but just couldn't get over the hump. Trailing 16-10, the Cowgirls put together a little run to cut the lead to 17-14 on D'Alessandro kill. Southern Miss scored the next four points to extend their lead to 21-14 before going on to take the fourth set 25-17 and the match.
 
"We are grateful for the experience to very good, physical Southern Miss team. We built our preseason around matches like this because they will make us better in the long run," Fitzgerald said.
 
Junior Rae Myers led the Cowgirls with seven kills. Senior Rebecca Korenek and freshman Keegan Nelms both pitched in with five apiece. Setter Alexandra Aguilera dished out 24 assists and picked up seven digs. Senior libero Bridget Justis led the Cowgirls with 10 digs while Schneider picked up three blocks.
 
McNeese will conclude tournament play Saturday with a 10 a.m. match against Tulane and a 3:30 p.m. match against Grambling.