HOUSTON, Texas—McNeese volleyball opened Southland Conference Tournament action here Friday with a 3-1 (19-25, 25-19, 25-23, 25-23) win over No. 7 seed Nicholls to advance to the semifinals for the first time since 2015.

"Coming into this match, we knew it was going to be a tough match. It doesn't matter what happened during the season, this becomes a new type of game. It tried to explain that to our team. It's not a situation where we can just show up an play the match," said head coach Kristee Porter. "Nicholls is a good team, they have good players and today they played a phenominal match. It was tough match and I knew it would be." 
 
McNeese (17-10) will face No. 2 seed Houston Baptist at 12 p.m. Saturday. HBU, the tournament host defeated the Cowgirls both times in the regular season, most recently in four sets in Lake Charles in the final regular season match.

"Consistency for us is the key, we have to become more consistent as a team. Our serve receive when we can pass the ball well and we can be in system, we have a very potent offense. Defensively, we need to make sure that our block is there, available, ready, and posing a threat. We are going to pretty much do everything well," Porter said.
 
Nicholls opened the match taking control at the net and using Cowgirl errors to pick up the first set win for the early lead.
 
McNeese regrouped and used solid blocking to get back into the match by taking the second set to even the match at one set apiece.
 
The Cowgirls jumped out to a 6-2 lead in the third set. Leading 11-8, Nicholls went on a 5-0 run to take a 13-11. McNeese responded with a 5-0 run of its own to take a 16-13 lead. With the set tied at 22 apiece, kills by Anyse Smith and Kendall Glueck put the Cowgirls up 24-22. After a kill by Nicholls, Jaylin Gordon's kill gave the Cowgirls the win to take a 2-1 lead.
 
Both teams traded points in the fourth set until 6-0 run by McNeese put the Cowgirls up 13-8.  Three straight points by Nicholls cut the Cowgirl lead to 13-11 but McNeese scored the next four points for a 17-11 lead. McNeese would extend its lead to 23-18 on a Nicholls error but the Colonels never gave up as they scored the next four points to cut the McNeese lead to 23-22. Glueck struck again for a 24-23 lead before Emily Gauthreaux's kill kept the Colonels within one point. Smith then put the match away with a kill for the Cowgirl victory.
 
Three Cowgirls ended the match with double figure kills with Smith leading the way with 20 kills. Aryn Johnson added 12 kills, and Glueck ended with 10.