MACOMB, Il.- McNeese volleyball dropped both its matches here Friday at the Western Illinois Buffalo Wild Wings Invitational but got outstanding individual performances from a few players. McNeese closed out Friday with a 3-1 (25-23, 21-25, 22-25, 19-25) loss to Valparaiso. The Cowgirls will conclude tournament action at 9 a.m. Saturday against Western Illinois. Live streaming and live stats will be provided. Links can be found at mcneesesports.com.
 
McNeese let its opening match against Drake slip away morning in 3-2 (25-21, 25-23, 18-25, 18-25, 13-15) loss that saw the Cowgirls give up a 2-0 lead after winning the first two sets before dropping the final three sets.
 
"It was a real blessing to play two teams from the Missouri Valley Conference today," said head coach Ashleigh Fitzgerald. "That's a great league every year and both Drake and Valpo didn't give us free points all day. We really had to rally a lot and when we gave both those teams an easy opportunity, they ran it back at us hard."
 
Sophomore Shanna Spree led all players with a career high 21 kills to go along with a .413 hitting percent, two service aces and four blocks. Several other Cowgirls recorded season highs in the match. Senior Jenny D'Alessandro picked up a season high 15 kills and sophomore Keegan Nelms tied her season high with 13.  Setters Adison Giambrone and Alexandra Aguilera had individual high's in assists. Giambrone dished out a career high 26 assists while Aguilera had a season high 28 assists.
 
McNeese had five players record 10 or more digs in the match with Angela McGownd leading all players with a match high 31. Nelms and Madison Fontenot each had 14, Aguilera had 12 and Giambrone had 10.
 
In the loss to Valparaiso, Spree was the only Cowgirl to record double figure kills, ending the match with 11 and 32 for the day. For the second straight match, Giambrone dished out at least 20 assists with exactly 20.
 
As a team, McNeese recorded a season high 102 digs and had five players pick up at least 10. McGownd added 26 to her 31 against Drake earlier in the day for a total of 57 for an average of 6.33 per set.  Jenny D'Alessandro led led all players with a season high seven blocks including five assisted.   
 
"Offensively, we are doing some really nice things, so we will keep building on our offense, especially our attacking in the middle and then tidy up some other areas," Fitzgerald said.