Box Score HUNTSVILLE, Texas— McNeese volleyball put up a good fight Thursday night in its Southland Conference opener at Sam Houston State but couldn't find an answer for the Bearkats Taylor Cunningham in a 3-1 loss (15-25, 25-22, 25-16, 25-18).
McNeese will continue conference action on the road for a 1 p.m. match at Abilene Christian on Saturday.
Taylor led all players with 21 kills, 16 digs and a .463 hitting percent to help SHSU (9-4, 1-0 SLC) to the conference opening victory.
McNeese (1-14, 0-1 SLC) was led in kills by
Allison Lippert's career high 10. McNeese led SHSU in blocks (8-5) and digs (76-75) but the Bearkats controlled the service line with eight service aces including five in the third set.
Freshman
Paige Havel led McNeese at the net with six blocks and
Ebony Lewis picked up four.
For the first time this season, four Cowgirls picked up double figure digs in a match.
Angela McGownd led McNeese with 19 while
Alexandra Aguilera had 13 and Sharrock and
Haley Schneider both picked up 12 apiece.
After dishing out a career high 34 assists against Southern last week, Sharrock bettered that tonight with a new career high of 41 to complete the double-double.
McNeese held an early lead in the opening set but couldn't hold the lead despite excellent defense. The Cowgirls picked up 19 digs and out blocked the Bearkats 8-3 before dropping the set.
The Cowgirls evened the match at one set apiece with a second set, 25-22 win. McNeese once again took the early lead before going on a 5-0 run to take a 9-5 lead following a
Keegan Nelms kill. McNeese extended its lead to 11-5 on two straight SHSU errors.
Another kill by Nelms midway through the set put McNeese up 18-12 and the Cowgirls continued to build on the lead. A block assists by Lippert and Lewis gave McNeese a 23-17 lead. Lewis gave the Cowgirls a 24-18 lead on a kill but a 4-0 run by SHSU cut the McNeese lead to 24-22. Nelms stepped up again with another kill to give McNeese the second win.
SHSU used the service line to pick up five points on aces along with scoring runs in which McNeese couldn't replicate in the third set to take a 2-1 match lead with a 25-16 win.
The fourth set began with both teams trading points early until SHSU broke a 6-6 tie by outscoring McNeese 8-2 for a 14-8 lead.
McNeese responded with a run of its own (4-1) to cut the SHSU lead toe three points (15-12) on a Lewis kill. SHSU outscored McNeese 10-4 the rest of the way to take the set and the match. McNeese didn't go down without a fight and staved off three match points before Jaclyn Ward ended the match a kill.
