MONROE, La. — The ULM volleyball team (7-14, 1-6) fell in three sets (24-26, 23-25, 17-15) to Southern Miss (13-5, 4-3) on Thursday evening.
Aniya Hall led all players with 14 kills on .371 hitting (14-1-35), while Tatum Clay hit .444 with eight kills and no errors (8-0-18). The match was Clay's sixth of the season with no attack errors. Setter Morgan Howard made a season-high two kills and added 14 assists with two aces.
Marissa Kobelski made a season-high two aces along with her five kills and digs. Defensive specialist Amelia Colon earned her first career kill on the match.
The Golden Eagles outhit the Warhawks (.368 to .268), but ULM made seven aces while Southern Miss made four.
Morgan Howard got on the board early, tying the first set score 5-5 with a dump. The Golden Eagles rode a 7-1 point streak to lead 13-8, and force the Warhawks to climb back. ULM cut the deficit to two coming out of the media timeout after kills by Grace Troxell and Aniya Hall, along with Howard's second of the match. Southern Miss made another run, going up 23-18, but the Warhawks responded with four straight points to get within one. Marissa Kobelski's ace, and the Warhawks' fifth of the set, knotted the score at 24-24, but the Golden Eagles took the set on back-to-back swings.
The second remained tight, with the teams trading points and the lead. Southern Miss broke out to a five-point lead, carrying it into the break. The Warhawks answered with a 6-1 run, highlighted by two kills from Kenzie Behl, to make the score 16-16. ULM reclaimed the lead at 19-18 with three straight, capitalizing on an Eden Pietrzak ace. The Warhawks led until it was 22-20, but Southern Miss put up four consecutive points to make it set point. Aniya Hall's swing brought the serve back to ULM, but the Golden Eagles put it away on their second set point of the set.
ULM led 9-6 in the third set after Amelia Colon's reception snuck past the Southern Miss defense, but Golden Eagles strung together a 9-2 run to lead 15-11 at the break. The Warhawks got within three after Clay's kill, but Southern Miss went on to take the set by eight points, clinching the match.
The Warhawks will face Southern Miss for the second match of the series tomorrow, October 16, at the ULM Activity Center. First serve is set for 6 p.m.
