HUNTSVILLE, Texas---McNeese volleyball pulled off an upset over second place Sam Houston State Thursday night in a thrilling five set Southland Conference match by the scores of 25-19, 25-22, 13-25, 22-25, 15-13 to pick up its second conference win of the season and first win over Sam Houston State in the last four years when the Cowgirls defeated the Bearkats 3-2 in Huntsville during the 2015 season.
 
The win improved McNeese to 9-13 overall and 2-8 in the SLC while SHSU falls to 11-10 overall and 7-2 in the SLC.
 
With the match tied at two sets apiece after McNeese jumped out two a 2-0 lead by taking the first two sets and SHSU coming back to win the next two, the Bearkats opened the fifth set by taking an 8-3 lead. Three straight kills by McNeese- one from Regan Stiawalt and two straight by Keegan Nelms forced a SHSU timeout.
 
Following the timeout, a SHSU error and another Nelms kill evened the set at eight apiece. A solo block by Ajani Hodges gave McNeese a 9-8 lead then Hodges and Stiawalt teamed up for a block assist to put McNeese up 10-8. A Cowgirls service ace brought the Bearkats to within one point (10-9), but that would be as close as they would get. McNeese would go on a 4-1 run on a kill by Stiawalt, an ace by Hodges, a kill by Nelms and another ace by Kendall Kilchrist for a 14-10 lead. After two straight SHSU points, Nelms put down her 17^th kills of the night to end the match.
 
Nelms concluded her double double with 15 digs. Joining Nelms in double figure kills was Alexis Lambert (15) and Macee Krpec (13).
 
Four Cowgirls picked up double figure digs and were led by Angela McGownd who was credited with 21. Besides Nelms' 15, Madison Fontenot and Kilchrist both had 10 apiece. Hodges ended the match with six blocks, two shy of tying her career high.
 
McNeese will return home next Thursday, Oct. 31 to host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The match will be the first of the final four home matches of the season.
 
 
SET 1 (McNeese 25, SHSU 19)
McNeese opened the match by taking an 7-4  lead that forced SHSU to call its first timeout. McNeese extended its lead to 11-8 on a kill by Regan Stiawalt then McNeese went on a 6-1 run to extend its lead to 17-9 behind a Keegan Nelms service ace for its largest lead of the set.  SHSU didn't go away easily as they went on a 10-7 run before the Cowgirls picked up the first set win on a kill by Nelms. McNeese hit .222 for the set while SHSU hit .098. The first set win was the first over SHSU in the last five meetings.
 
SET 2 (McNeese 25, SHSU 22)
Cowgirls picked up where they left off in the opening set and took a quick 2-0 lead on a kill by Lauren Burt and Kendall Kilchrist. The Cowgirls continued to put pressure on the Bearkat defense and extended its lead to 10-6 with the last two points coming from SHSU errors that forced a Bearkat error.
 
Leading 17-16, McNeese went on a 3-0 run on kills by Regan Stiawalt and Lambert and a block assists by Nelms and Ajani Hodges. Another block assist by Lambert and Krpec put McNeese up 23-19 but SHSU scored two straight points to cut the lead to 23-22 before kills by Krpec and Lambert gave the Cowgirls a 25-22 second set win.
 
SET 3 (McNeese 13, SHSU 25)
McNeese scored the first point of the set for the third straight set to take a 1-0 lead but SHSU's offense started clicking and scored the next five points to take a 5-1 lead. Following a timeout, SHSU scored another point to lead 6-1. Two straight points by McNeese cut the lead in half, 6-3. With SHSU leading 15-9, the Bearkats went on a 3-1 run to extend its lead to 18-10 that forced Cowgirl head coach Ashleigh Fitzgerald to call a timeout.
 
SHSU ended the match on a 7-3 run and hit .531 to take the set a, avoiding a straight set loss.
 
SET 4 (McNeese 22, SHSU 25)
SHSU carried its momentum from the third set into the fourth set to take and early 8-3 lead but two straight blocks by the Cowgirls brought them to within two, 8-6. Six straight points by the Bearkats gave them a 13-6 lead before a Nelms kill stopped the scoring run.
 
Trailing 15-8, the Cowgirls scored the next three points to move to within four, 15-11. Following a SHSU timeout, Nelms and Lauren Burt teamed up for a block assists then Burt picked up a solo block to put the Cowgirls to within two 15-13.
 
A kill by Lambert brought McNeese to within one 17-16 briefly before SHSU responded with a kill. But the Cowgirls picked up another block to stay within one point 19-18. An untimely service error by the Cowgirls then a block by SHSU put the Bearkats up 23-20 but a Nelms kill followed as McNeese trailed 23-21. SHSU held on to pick up the fourth set win 25-22 to send the match to a fifth set.  
 
SET 5 (McNeese 15, SHSU 12)
SHSU once again scored the first point of the set and kept the momentum on its side with solid defense both at the net and the back line to take an 8-3 lead before switching sides. McNeese scored the next three points to cut the SHSU lead to 8-6. Following a SHSU timeout, the Bearkats committed an error then a kill by Nelms evened the set at eight apiece and then a Hodges block gave the Cowgirls a 9-8 lead and then a block assist by Hodges and Stiawalt put the Cowgirls up 10-8. In the closing points of the set, a service ace by Kilchrist and two kills by Nelms including the match winner helped McNeese to its first win over Sam Houston State in four years.