HOUSTON, Texas—Despite falling 3-1 (25-20, 20-25, 23-25, 14-25) at Houston Christian Thursday night in a match that consisted of 30 ties and 10 lead changes, McNeese volleyball will be the No. 3 seed in next week's Southland Conference Tournament, hosted by Texas A&M-Corpus Christi no matter what the outcome will be in Saturday's regular season finale at home against Southeastern.
 
Wins by McNeese (15-15, 13-4 SLC) and HCU (17-12, 12-5) in their final match of the season would give both teams a 13-5 conference record.  By virtue of the tie-breaker McNeese wins the tiebreaker by winning more sets combined in both meetings between the two teams.  McNeese swept HCU 3-0 in Lake Charles along with its first set win tonight gives the Cowgirls a total of four sets won against HCU. The Huskies won three sets against McNeese, all coming in tonight's win.
 
Three Cowgirls (Carissa Chainey, Kayla Wilson, and McKenzie Moore picked up double figure kills with Chainey lead the way with 16.  Wilson chipped in with 13 kills and Moore ended with 10.
 
In a match between two of the best defensive teams in the SLC, the teams combined for 139 digs in the match.  McNeese ended the match with 66 digs with Bailey Tillman leading all players with 22 digs.  Chainey picked up 12 digs to complete her ninth double double of the season. 
Kendall Osgood had 11 digs.
 
HCU also had three players pick up double figure kills with Sara Arroyo leading all players with 18.  Cassidy Drapela had 16 and Anna Gadway had 11.  The Huskies out blocked the Cowgirls 17-6  with Audrey Pierce leading HCU with five. Tatiana Evans led HCU in digs with 16.
 
McNeese will close out the regular season on Saturday in an 11 a.m. match against regular season champions Southeastern.  Seniors Nejra Hanic and Revna Cakir will be honored prior to the match.
 
 
SET 1
• McNeese jumped out to a 7-3 lead
• McNeese equaled its largest lead of the set of four points (22-18) on a kill by Carissa Chainey
• McNeese scored three of the next five points to pick up the win.
 
SET 2
• McNeese trailed by as many as four points early in the set and took its first lead 14-13 on a kill by Tshilanda Diouf
• With the set tied at 15, HCU scored three straight points to lead 18-15
• McNeese pulled to within one 21-20 on a Chainey kill but HCU scored the next four point to win the set to even the match at one apiece.
 
SET 3
• The third set started like the first two, back and forth and neither team lead by more than two points at the media timeout where McNeese led 15-13
• McNeese held a 21-19 lead but HCU went on a 4-1 run to take a 23-22 lead then won the set by winning two of the final three points to take a 2-1 match lead.
 
SET 4
• HCU opened the set by taking a 4-1 lead
• McNeese scored three straight points to tie the set at four apiece
• HCU went on a 15-6 run to take a 19-10 lead before McNeese ended the run due to a HCU service error
• The Huskies continued to pull away and went on to win the set 25-14 to win the match
 
 
McNEESE NOTES
• The match consisted of 30 ties and 10 lead changes.
• The loss snaps McNeese's six match winning streak
• McNeese has won 13 of its last 17 matches
• Even with the loss, McNeese will be the No. 3 seed in next week's SLC Tournament in Corpus Christi.
• Carissa Chainey led a trio of McNeese players who recorded double figure kills with 16.  Chainey completed her ninth double double of the season with 12 digs.
• Bailey Tillman led all players with 22 digs, her ninth match with 20 or more digs
• Kayla Wilson and McKenzie Moore also picked up double figure digs.  Wilson had 13 and Moore had 10.
• Kendall Osgood also had double figure digs with 11