LAKE CHARLES—McNeese women's volleyball will begin Southland Conference play this week beginning with a 7 p.m. match Thursday at Southeastern Louisiana. McNeese will remain on the road for a 1 p.m. match at Nicholls on Saturday.
Both matches will be streamed on each school's YouTube channel. Live stats will also be available for both matches. All links can be found on mcneesesports.com.
McNeese (7-5) was picked to finish eighth in the preseason poll while SE La. (5-9, 0-1 SLC) was picked 13th and Nicholls (6-5) was picked 12th.
The Cowgirls will look to bounce back from a disappointing 3-1 loss at Louisiana-Monroe on Sunday that snapped a four-match winning streak.
Heading into the conference opener, McNeese leads the league with 2.09 service aces per set and ranks fourth in digs (15.09) per set and blocks per set with 1.99.
A couple of Cowgirls lead the SLC in a few categories. Regan Stiawalt leads the league with 0.68 service aces per set and Angela McGownd is tops with 5.42 digs per set. Alexis Lambert ranks sixth in kills per set (3.06), Caitlin Sharrock ranks eighth in assists (6.66), Keegan Nelms and Allison Lippert also rank in service aces. Nelms ranks eighth and Lippert ranks ninth. Lippert also ranks sixth in blocks, averaging 1.00 per set.
For the Lady Lions, who are in their first year under former McNeese assistant coach Jeremy White, have already played a conference match earlier this month against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, falling in five sets in Hammond. SE La. is coming off a 1-2 showing at the Comfort Inn-vitational last weekend with its win coming against Coppin State. The Lady Lions also picked up a five-set win at Tulane earlier in the season.
Nicholls has lost its last five matches but are 2-0 at home this season. The Colonels will travel to New Orleans on Thursday before hosting the Cowgirls Saturday.
