LAKE CHARLES—McNeese volleyball kept its Southland Conference Tournament hopes alive Thursday night with a four set (25-27, 25-12, 25-21, 26-24) win over Southeastern Louisiana in a match that saw a balanced offensive attack and 31 blocks from the Cowgirls on the night.
With the win, McNeese improves to 9-21 overall and 7-8 in conference play. The Cowgirls will conclude the regular season with an 11 a.m. match against Northwestern State. The loss drops Southeastern La. to 2-26 overall and 1-14 in league play.
Four Cowgirls recorded 10 or more kills and three players picked up six or more blocks apiece.
Katelyn Elliott led McNeese with 12 kills while
Keegan Nelms recorded her eighth double-double of the season with 11 kills and 11 digs.
Paige Havel and
Kendall Glueck also had 10 kills apiece. The 10 kills for Glueck is her career high and she also picked up career high seven blocks on the night.
Amari Franklin picked up her first career double-double with 27 assists and a career high 15 digs.
Caitlin Sharrock ended the night with 25 assists.
At the net along with Glueck,
Allison Lippert was credited with nine blocks,
Ebony Lewis and Havel had six apiece and Nelms picked up two.
After dropping the first set 27-25, McNeese evened the match at one set apiece with a 25-12 second set win.
The Cowgirls took a 2-1 overall match lead by breaking a 15-15 tie in the third set off a kill by Lewis that gave McNeese the momentum that carried them to third set win.
McNeese opened the fourth set by taking a 4-1 lead but allowed the Lions to come back and even the match at five all.
The Cowgirls went on another run to lead 11-6 but SE La. came back to tie it up at 13. With the match tied at 19 all, SE La. took its first lead of the match and had match point at 24-22 following a Cowgirl service error.
A kill by Lippert coupled with a Lion error knotted things up a 24 all. Another SE La. error gave McNeese a 25-24 advantage then Lippert's seventh kill of the match gave the Cowgirls the 26-24 fourth set win and the overall match victory.
