LAKE CHARLES-  McNeese volleyball moved into a third-place tie in the league standings with a straight set (25-20, 25-16, 25-15) Southland Conference win over Southeastern here Thursday night to improve to 6-4 in league play and 12-9 overall. The win avenged a previous five set loss at Southeastern earlier this month. The loss drops the Lady Lions to 8-14 overall and 6-4 in the SLC.
 
Aryn Johnson and Anyse Smith paced McNeese with 14 and 10 kills, respectively. Johnson also ended the match with a .545 hitting percent and five blocks while Smith ended with a .364 hitting percent.
 
Bria Plante led the Cowgirls block party with a match high seven blocks. McNeese ended the match with 20 blocks while Southeastern picked up nine.
 
Ceci Harness continued her streak of dishing out double figure assists, ending the night with a match high 25. Lizzy Low led McNeese with eight digs.
 
The Cowgirls trailed 8-6 early on in the opening set but four straight points behind the serve of Ceci Harness gave McNeese a 10-8 lead and one they wouldn't give up. Southeastern cut the lead to 19-18 but a kill by Macee Krpec and two Lady Lion errors put the Cowgirls up 22-8. With McNeese leading 23-20, Johnson put the set away with back-to-back kills to give McNeese a 1-0 lead.
 
Harness' serve was evident once again in set 2 as McNeese took an early 3-1 lead with her serving to open the second set. McNeese continued to build on its lead and also used Baylee Laskoskie's serve to score four straight points to extend the lead to 10-4.
 
Late in the set, a kill by Kendall Glueck put McNeese up 21-13. McNeese would end the set on a 4-3 run and would win the set 25-16 on a kill by Glueck to give the Cowgirls a 2-0 overall lead.
 
A kill by Smith to open the third set was the momentum the Cowgirls needed to move out to an 8-3 lead on a service ace by Laskoskie.  A Cowgirl scoring run extended the lead to 12-6. Southeastern went on a scoring run of their own to pull to within 15-12 but a Jaylin Gordon kill halted the Lady Lion run. McNeese then scored three straight points to take an 18-12 lead then late in the set, got three more points off Laskoskie's serve to lead 22-14.  McNeese scored three of the final four points of the set to win the set 25-15 and the match 3-0.
 
McNeese conclude its four-match home stand with a 1 p.m. match against Northwestern State on Saturday.
 
 
MATCH NOTES
•- the win puts the Cowgirls in a third-place tie with Southeastern in the SLC standings. Both teams are now 6-4 in league play
•- Aryn Johnson led all players with 14 kills and a .545 hitting percent. It's her seventh consecutive match with 10 or more kills.
•- Anyse Smith picked up 14 kills and hit .364. Since becoming eligible, Smith has recorded 10 or more assists in two of the three matches she has played this season.
•- Ceci Harness dished out a match high 25 assists. Harness has dished out 10 or more assists in 20 of 21 matches this season.
•- Baylee Laskoskie was credited with 12 assists. Laskoskie has recorded 10 or more assists in 15 of the 18 matches she has played in this season.
•- Bria Plante led all players with seven blocks, one shy of tying her career high.