ARLINGTON, Texas—McNeese volleyball held off the University of Houston to open its season with a 3-2 (25-21, 25-22, 28-30, 16-25, 15-11) win here Friday at the Texas-Arlington Maverick Classic. McNeese will take on UTA at noon and Southern at 5 p.m. Saturday to conclude tournament play. Both matches will be streamed live and the links can be found by going to mcneesesports.com.
 
"This was a great way to kick off the season," said head coach Ashleigh Fitzgerald. "If we couldn't pull it off in three, I'm grateful we had the opportunity to get a five setter against a solid team like Houston under our belt. I thing we saw some first match nerves and jitters out there, but we played within ourselves and stuck to our system and it paid off at the end of the day," Fitzgerald said.
 
Sophomore Keegan Nelms led the Cowgirls with 12 kills and ended the match with her first double-double of the season by picking up 22 digs. Sophomore Katelyn Elliott also picked up double figure kills with 11. Four Cowgirls recorded double figure digs with sophomore libero Angela McGownd leading McNeese with 32. Also collecting double figure digs besides McGownd and Nelms was freshman Madison Fontenot with 14 in her first collegiate start. Sophomore Alexandra Aguilera also picked up a double-double with 11 digs and 19 assists. Senior Adison Giambrone dished out a team high 25 assist and was one dig short of a double-double with nine digs.
 
McNeese was active at the net, ending the match with 10 team blocks. Both senior Jenny D'Alessandro and junior Ebony Lewis led McNeese with five apiece. Sophomore Shanna Spree in her first match back after a season ending knee injury last season, was credited with four blocks and nine kills.
 
 
McNeese opened the match with a solid offensive performance, hitting .387 behind 15 kills and only three hitting errors while picking up 12 digs to take the first set 25-21.
 
The Cowgirls continued where they left off in the first set by picking up a 25-22 second set win to take a 2-0 lead. McNeese continued to play consistent on both offense and defense and ended the set with a .247 hitting percent.
 
McNeese couldn't end the match in straight sets despite holding a 20-15 lead. With the set tied at 23 all, both teams traded points until Houston won the set 30-28 to take its first set of the match.
 
Houston evened the math at two sets apiece with a 25-16 fourth set victory to send the match to a deciding fifth set. Houston took an early 7-2 lead and never looked back, extending its lead to 23-16 lead on a Sarah Afflerbaugh kill. Houston won the set on a Cowgirl hitting error.  
 
The Cowgirls took advantage of Houston errors to take an 8-4 lead. McNeese extended its lead to 12-7 on a Lewis kill and another Houston error. With the Cowgirls leading 12-9, D'Alessandro and Rae Myers combined for a block assist to extend the lead to 13-9. A Myers kill then gave McNeese a 14-10 lead before Nelms put the final touches with a kill to give McNeese a fifth set 15-11 win and the overall match victory.