HAMMOND—McNeese volleyball dropped its Southland Conference opener Thursday night (25-27, 17-25, 18-25) against a Southeastern Louisiana team that played its most consistent match so far this season.
 
"Very disappointing way to start conference," said head coach Ashleigh Fitzgerald. "Credit to Southeastern La., their middles played great and when we served tough balls, they usually handled them. They will win a lot of league games this year."
 
For the second match in a row McNeese (7-6) was out blocked. Southeastern La. (6-9) held a 14-5 blocks advantage which contributed to McNeese hitting .040 for the match. The Cowgirls didn't help their hitting woes by committing 23 hitting errors.
 
"We have to find a consistent offense. It's hard to find a rhythm battling some injuries here and there, but we have got to find a way to put together consistent days where we can hit and score effectively," Fitzgerald said.
 
McNeese will remain on the road and will travel to Thibodaux Saturday for a 1 p.m. match at Nicholls.
 
 
SET 1: SE La. 27, McNeese 25
McNeese let a 19-14 lead slip away but the Cowgirls came back to even the match but couldn't pull out the victory
 
SET 2:  SE La. 25, McNeese 17
SE La. opened the set by scoring the first three points and used blocking to go on a 7-0 run to take a 11-3 lead.
 
McNeese went on a run of its own, a 5-1 run to cut the lead to 12-8. Southeastern La. responded with another run to push its lead to 18-9. The Lions went on to take the set to lead the overall match 2-0
 
SET 3: SE La. 25, McNeese 18
The set started out with both team's exchanging points before the Lady Lions went on a run to take a 16-8 lead behind the play of Jodi Edo.
 
McNeese made a push and got within five points (18-13) and then again at 22-17 behind kills from Keegan Nelms but that would be as close as McNeese would get as SE La. went on to close out the match with a 25-18 third set win.
 
McNeese Match Notes

• Junior outside hitter Alexis Lambert missed tonight's match due to an injury. In the previous four matches, Lambert recorded double figure kills for an average of 4.5 kills per set and led McNeese in kills in the last three matches.
• Senior Keegan Nelms led McNeese with 11 kills tonight, it's her second straight match and seventh match of the season with 10 or more kills.
• Setter Caitlin Sharrock led McNeese with 16 assists and Angela McGownd picked up 11 digs.