NATCHITOCHES—McNeese volleyball put forth a good effort in its regular season finale Saturday but it wasn't enough as the Cowgirls fell in straight sets (23-25 23-25, 22-25) to Northwestern State.
With the loss, McNeese ends the season in a three-way tie for fifth place with a 10-6 conference record and will enter next week's Southland Conference Tournament as the 7
th seed. McNeese will play second seed Central Arkansas at 4 p.m. Friday in Corpus Christi.
McNeese (19-12, 10-6 SLC) struggled with the Lady Demons serve and a few untimely errors.
"This was a tough one," said head coach
Ashleigh Fitzgerald. "Northwestern State played a great match and somehow we scored more points, hit a higher percentage, dug and blocked more balls. However, we just had some untimely errors and the serve-pass numbers were enough to tilt the match in their direction."
McNeese trailed by as many as six points in the first set and came within one point before dropping the set 25-23.
The Cowgirls let the second set slip away. Leading 16-12, Northwestern State outscored McNeese 7-3 to tie the set at 19 all then NSU scored the next five points to take a 24-19 lead. McNeese would score the next four points to move within one 24-23 but a kill by the Lady Demons gave them the second set win and a 2-0 overall match lead.
McNeese stayed within reach early in the third set until NSU extended its lead o 17-10. McNeese closed the gap to two points (20-18) and then one point twice last in the set before falling 25-22.
Keegan Nelms and Katelyn Elliott both led McNeese with nine kills apiece while Allison Lippert added eight. Lippert also had a team best .400 hitting percent. Nelms also led with 13 digs with Angela McGownd credited with 12. Addison Giambrone dished out 18 digs and Alexandra Aguilera had 17. Shanna Spree ended the match with five blocks and Lippert with four.
