LAKE CHARLES—Houston Baptist proved its the top blocking volleyball team in the Southland Conference here Thursday night in a 3-1 (21-25, 25-13, 30-32, 23-25) win over McNeese (16-10, 9-5 SLC) in both team's regular season finale.
The Huskies (21-7, 12-2 SLC) ended the match with 21 blocks to hand the Cowgirls their second loss of the season. The other Cowgirl home loss was to league champs Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
The night also marked the final home match for senior
Regan Stiawalt who was honored following the match. Stiawalt has been sidelined for the last seven matches due to an injury.
Four Cowgirls recorded double figure kills with
Aryn Johnson leading all players with 17.
Anyse Smith and
Macee Krpec both picked up 12 kills, and
Kendall Glueck ended the night with 10.
Mikayla Vivens led the Huskies with 10 kills. HBU had three players with five or more blocks on the night. Audrey Pearce was credited with six blocks and Jada Allen and Ellie Wipf bot had five apiece.
In the opening set, McNeese stayed within reach and trailed by one point (19-18) following a Glueck kill. The Huskies went on to outscore the Cowgirls 7-2 the rest of the way to take a 1-0 lead.
McNeese regrouped and came out aggressive in the second set and jumped out to a 7-4 lead. Four straight points from the serve of
Baylee Laskoskie put the Cowgirls up 13-6. A kill by Smith and two HBU errors extended the Cowgirl lead to 18-9. Late in the set,
Ceci Harness served for three straight points to put McNeese up 20-10. McNeese would score five of the last eight points to even the set at one set apiece with the 25-13 win.
The third set featured several outstanding plays on both sides of the net that led the set to go past the normal 25-point set that included 10 ties and five lead changes.
HBU led 14-9 but the Cowgirls continued to cut into the lead and got to within one point (18-17) on another Smith kill.
With HBU leading 22-18, McNeese outscored the Huskies 6-2 to tie the set at 24 apiece.
The set would tie up four more times and with the score knotted at 30 all, Vivens put the Huskies up 31-30 on a kill then a service ace by Wipf gave the Huskies the third set 32-30 win to take a 2-1 overall lead.
The final set went back and forth as well. McNeese trailed early on but battled back to take the lead 20-19 on a Johnson kill. The teams would trade points and following three more ties, HBU used a kill by Anna Gadaway and a Cowgirl error to win the fourth set 25-23 and the overall match.
MATCH NOTES
•- McNeese closed out the regular season with a 16-10 overall record and 9-5 in the SLC
•- the loss is only the second home loss for the Cowgirls this season.
•- McNeese ends the season with a 9-2 home record. The two home losses were against the top two teams in the SLC (Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and HBU).
•- The match marked the final home match for senior
Regan Stiawalt who was recognized following the match.
•- Four Cowgirls recorded 10 or more kills.
Aryn Johnson led McNeese with 17 kills,
Anyse Smith and
Macee Krpec both had 10 apiece and
Kendall Glueck ended with 10.
•
Lizzy Low led all players with 21 digs.
•- Johnson and Laskoskie both produce a double double. Johnson had 13 digs to go along with her 17 kills. Laskoskie had 21 assists and 11 digs.
•-
Ceci Harness ended the match with 24 assists
•-
Jaylin Gordon led McNeese with three blocks
•- McNeese will travel to Houston next week to take part in the Southland Conference Tournament that will be hosted Houston Baptist.
