HAMMOND, La. – The defending Southland Conference Champion Southeastern Louisiana University volleyball team continued its historic run by matching the longest win streak since the spring of 2021 with its seventh sweep in a row and has now won 24-straight sets with a 3-0 (25-10, 25-10, 25-19) win over the Texas A&M-Commerce Lions Saturday at the Pride Roofing University Center.

Rachel Hartmann picked up kills on the match’s first two rallies to get Southeastern out to a quick 2-0 lead before A&M-Commerce responded with three-straight points to take their first lead in the match. That’s where SLU took control of the set, scoring on seven of the next eight rallies to take a 9-4 lead on a Commerce attack error. Commerce cut the Southeastern lead down to 10-6 before the Lady Lions blew the set open as a Cicily Hidalgo kill started a SLU run of five-straight points which eventually grew to eight out of nine points going Southeastern’s way as a Kailin Newsome kill but the Lady Lion up 18-7. Commerce answered with two straight points, only to have SLU finish the set with a 7-1 run as an A&M-Commerce attack missed the playing surface on set point to give Southeastern a 25-10 first set win.

Hannah Brewer kicked off the second set with a kill, jump-starting the Southeastern offense to get out to a 7-1 lead after Newsome dropped down a service ace. A&M-Commerce would only get as close as five points the rest of the set, which came at 10-5 before another Hidalgo kill started a run of four-straight and six out of seven points going Southeastern’s way for a 16-6 lead as Brewer and Newsome blocked back an A&M-Commerce attack for a Lady Lion point. Leading 17-8, a kill by Brewer kicked off another push of six straight points as Hartmann got up to block a Commerce attack to make it 23-8. SLU used four rallies to get the last two points needed to close out the set as Hartmann hammered down another kill on set point to finish it at 25-10 and put SLU up 2-0 in the match.

Hartmann opened the scoring in the third set with a kill, and after a Commerce kill tied the set at 1-1, Brewer tallied a kill of her own to put the Lady Lions up for good in the match. That kill started a 9-2 Southeastern run which Newsome ended with a kill to make it 10-3 Lady Lions. Leading 12-7, another Newsome kill started a 5-1 SLU run as back-to-back aces by Newsome pushed the Southeastern lead out to 17-8. A&M-Commerce made a run to get back into it, scoring the next five points to cut the SLU lead down to 17-13, but Commerce would get no closer as Southeastern was able to push the advantage back out to six at 22-16 as Alexis Logarbo and Jacqueline Arrington blocked back a Commerce attack. Six rallies later, Newsome finished things off with a kill on match point to finish off the sweep with a 25-19 win in the third set.

Hartmann had another efficient performance for the Lady Lions, hitting .579 in the match to collect a match-high 13 kills while adding two aces, a solo block, two assisted blocks, and six digs. Newsome finished with 10 kills and put down five service aces along with an assisted block and four digs. Hidalgo put down seven kills, added an ace, two assisted blocks, and eight digs. Brewer had six kills and four assisted blocks. Gracie Duplechein picked up her fifth double-double on the season with 37 assists and 10 digs while putting down two kills, two service aces, and a solo block.

Southeastern held a greater than .400 attack percentage for the second straight match, finishing the match against A&M-Commerce at .410 hitting as the Lady Lions racked up 46 kills with 12 errors on 83 total attacks. For the second time this week and third time this season, SLU tallied double figures in service aces with 10, matching the 10 scored against New Orleans on Tuesday with the other being 13 aces against Arkansas-Little Rock. SLU’s defense made its mark by holding Texas A&M-Commerce to a .062 attack percentage with 21 kills and 16 errors on 81 total attacks and couldn’t match Southeastern on the serve with just three aces and two errors.

The Lady Lions (14-4, 5-1 SLC) continue their three-match home stand on Thursday as Houston Christian comes to Hammond, America for a Southland Conference contest. Opening serve of Thursday’s match against the Huskies (8-8, 3-1 SLC) is set for 6:30 p.m. in the Pride Roofing University Center. The match will be live streamed on ESPN+ with a radio call of the match on KSLU 90.9FM in the Hammond/Ponchatoula area or worldwide on LionSports.net/ListenLive.

DIGGIN’ IT CLUB / S CLUB
Fans interested in becoming active supporters of the Southeastern volleyball program are encouraged to join the Diggin’ It Club. Lion volleyball alums are encouraged to join the exclusive S Club, which is restricted to Southeastern athletic letter winners.

All membership fees and donations to both the Diggin’ It Club and S Club (volleyball) are available for the exclusive use of the Southeastern volleyball program. Membership information is available by contacting the Lion Athletics Association at [email protected] or (985) 549-5091 or visiting www.LionUp.com.

SOCIAL MEDIA
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