FIRST SERVE –

ULM volleyball (7-13, 1-5) hosts Southern Miss (12-5, 3-3) for the Warhawks' second home Sun Belt series of the year.  The two teams will face off on Thursday, October 15 at 6 p.m. and Friday, October 16 at 6 p.m. in the ULM Activity Center.

FOLLOW THE WARHAWKS –

Live streaming on ESPN+ will be available for each match. Links to the live stream can be found at ulmwarhawks.com, and a link to live stats can be found on ulmwarhawks.com as well. Navigate to the volleyball schedule and select the desired match.

SCOUTING THE GOLDEN EAGLES –

Southern Miss enters the match up after splitting is series against Georgia State last weekend. The Golden Eagles fell in the first match, 1-3, but rebounded to take the second 3-1.

Southern Miss is led by fourth-year setter Allie Hazelwood, who earned her third SBC Setter of the Week award after the Georgia State series. She leads the Sun Belt with 10.71 assists per set. OH Sadie McAda leads the team with 256 total kills, and ranks second in the conference with 4.13 kills per set and 4.55 points per set. Libero Sunni Sheppard has recorded 273 digs and 26 assists, which ranks sixth in digs per set (4.40) and seventh in aces (0.42) in the Sun Belt.
McAda and Sheppard were each selected to the 2026 Preseason All-Sun Belt Team. McAda finished 2025 as a First-Team All-Sun Belt honoree, while Sheppard earned Third-Team.

ULM and Southern Miss have shared two opponents so far this season, each earning a win against Lamar, and dropping two matches against conference foe Troy. The Warhawks swept Lamar on the road, while the Golden Eagles won in four sets at home. ULM lost to Troy 1-3 and 0-3 in Alabama, and Southern Miss fell 1-3 in both games in Mississippi.

LAST TIME OUT –

The Warhawks enter the match up dropping both matches to Troy last weekend.

In the opening 1-3 loss, ULM won the first set 25-22, but fell in the following three. Aniya Hall led the Warhawks with 11 kills and an ace, while first-year Amelia Colon notched her first career ace, totaling three. Zharia Alleyne made a career-high six total blocks, including two solo blocks, while Tatum Clay matched her career-high with six as well. Libero Eden Pietrzak led the defense with 17 digs.

In the finale against the Trojans, ULM fell 0-3. Aniya Hall led all players with 10 kills, and she added nine digs and a block. Outside hitter Marissa Kobelski made a season-high 11 digs to lead the Warhawks, and Tatum Clay matched her career-high with six blocks. 

Both teams were aggressive with the serve, but Troy made 12 aces with six errors, while ULM put up six aces and seven errors.

DIGGING DEEP –

The Warhawks rank 26th nationally in team digs with 1078, a mark that's good for second in the Sun Belt. Libero Eden Pietrzak leads the team with 236, and OH Aniya Hall follows with 154. DS Briana Raney comes in with 142, while setters Morgan Howard and Bre Perrin are contributing 130 and 123, respectively.

FRESHMAN PHENOM –

Tatum Clay continues to establish herself halfway through conference play of her freshman season. The first-year is the only Warhawk to have played in every set (72) of each match so far this season (20). Clay is up to 79 total blocks on the season, and 28 aces, both of which are team-highs for the Warhawks. Her 79 blocks rank fifth best for total block in the Sun Belt, and Her 1.10 blocks per set and 0.39 aces per set each place her ninth. The middle blocker is hitting .309 (89-25-207) on the season. She's made six blocks in five matches so far this season, a team single-game high.

She hit .571 (9-1-14) in ULM's win over Marshall, adding three aces and three blocks (10/3). This hitting percentage is third-best in program history in a five-set match. The middle blocker made a career-best four digs, and rejected a team-high five Lady Lion swings against Arkansas-Pine Bluff, four of which were solo blocks (10/5).

Against North Dakota, Clay hit .636 (7-0-11), which is the second-best mark during a four-set match in program history. She also made four aces, which ties her for third-most in a four-set match in program history. Both of her matches with four solo blocks (Sam Houston 9/18 and Arkansas Pine Bluff 10/5) place her in the record book as well. In the three-set match against Arkansas-Pine Bluff, her four solo stuffs are most in program history.

CLEAR THE HALL –

Outside Hitter Aniya Hall is up to 203 kills on the season, a mark that puts her at tenth in the Sun Belt with 3.22 kills per set. 

Hall recorded 21 kills across the Warhawks' two matches last weekend, and has put up double-digit kills in 13 of ULM's 20 matches so far this season. The outside hitter has the second-most digs on the team, coming in with 154, second only to libero Eden Pietrzak, and has the second-most aces for the Warhawks at 19.

SETTING UP FOR SUCCESS –

Setters Morgan Howard and Bre Perrin have had an efficient first half of the season working in tandem to help the Warhawk offense. The two have just 18 combined errors. Howard has started in each of the Warhawks' games this season, and leads the team with 365 assists. Perrin has appeared in 17 of the 20 matches, and follows Howard with 267 assists.

Perrin recorded her fifth double-double of the season, leading the team in both assists (21) and digs (13) against Marshall (10/2). Howard has put up double-figure assists in every match this year, with a season-high 36 against East Texas A&M (8/30).