Late rally in fifth set falls short as Henderson State slides by Lady Muleriders on "Senior Night"

 

November 10, 2017



MAGNOLIA, Ark.- "Senior Night" was a battle inside the W.T. Watson Center as the Lady Mulerider Volleyball team forced a five-set match with Henderson State (21-25, 25-20, 16-25, 25-18, 14-16) that unfortunately ended up in a loss on Thursday night.

OF NOTE

For just the second time in her career, Alli O'Banion produced back-to-back matches with 15 or more kills. In her final two career games, the Dos Palos, California, native finished with the most kills in any two-match stretch of her career.

O'Banion finishes her career with the third-most kills in the Rally Scoring Era (RSE) with 1,023, while her 2,783 career attack attempts also ranks third in the RSE.

By posting superb attack percentages in back-to-back matches (.361 & .311), O'Banion finishes her career ranked ninth in the RSE in attack percentage with a career clip of .201.

O'Banion's 40 career block solos are the eighth-most in the RSE, while her 274 block assists are a career-best for a Lady Mulerider in the RSE.

O'Banion's 314 career total blocks are the third-most in the RSE, while her 0.67 blocks per set career mark ranks fifth.

O'Banion has played the most sets of any player in the RSE with 470 and has played in the second-most matches at 126.

O'Banion's 1,208.0 total points are the third-most for a Lady Mulerider in the RSE.

Savannah Pillow leaves SAU with the sixth-highest assists per set mark in a career in the RSE at 2.87.

Alexia Southern's 1,022 attack attempts this season are the eighth-most in a single season in the RSE.

Alexa Bass and Whitney Brown each cracked the top ten in service attempts in a single season with Bass' 447 tying for the fourth-most in the RSE and Brown's 385 tying for the tenth-most.

Bailey Cagle capped an impressive freshman campaign along the front line by finishing with the third-most block assists in a single season in the RSE with 86.

Cagle's 100 total blocks this season are the sixth-most for a Lady Mulerider in a single-season in the RSE, while her 0.87 blocks per set ranks as the seventh-highest mark in the RSE.

SAU's 342 block assists in 2017 are the second-most in a single-season since 2000 and the most in a single season since 2003.

The Lady Muleriders' 220.0 total blocks stand as the fourth-most for an SAU team since 2000 and the most in a single season since 2007. Their 1.88 blocks per set ranks fifth in a single season in the RSE and is also the highest per set average since 2007.

Southern Arkansas finished its 2017 campaign with top ten single season team marks in the RSE in attack attempts (4,117) and service attempts (2,438).

HOW IT HAPPENED

The first set saw six tie-scores, five of which the Lady Muleriders prompted, and in the final stretch of the set Henderson broke an 18-all tie with a 3-0 run to take their second-highest lead of that set, 21-18.

Following that sequence, a kill from Bailey Cagle followed by an HSU attack error brought the Lady Muleriders within a single point of the Reddies, 20-21. Henderson would score the next point to extend their lead, 22-20, and SAU's Alexia Southern answered with a kill to close the gap, 21-22, but the Reddies registered the final three points to take the first set, 25-21.

SAU quickly halted the Reddie's celebration in the second set as they totaled five blocks to hold Henderson at a .062 attack percentage in the contest. The Reddies saw their last lead of that set at a score of 2-1 as SAU engineered a 14-3 run that impacted its largest lead of the night, 15-5.

In that set, the Lady Muleriders were able to hold off a late Henderson rally allowing the Reddies to come as close as a two-point deficit, 22-20, before tallying the final three points courtesy of a pair of blocks and a kill from Morgan Gross, 25-20.

Despite dropping the third set, 16-25, the Lady Muleriders got on the board early in the fourth with a 3-0 advantage. The Reddies scored the next seven points to take the lead, 7-3, and maintained that lead up until a 6-0 run that gave the Lady Muleriders the advantage, 13-10. SAU later extended that lead out to 21-12 with another substantial run that consisted of five kills and a pair of block assists to force a fifth set with a 25-18 final decision.

The Lady Muleriders carried the momentum quickly into the final set as they led up until a score of 8-7. The Reddies took the lead to make it 11-9 and on three separate occasions SAU would come within a point shy of HSU. At match-point for the Reddies, 14-12, a block assist by Cagle and Gross gave SAU possession as Gross would deliver a kill on the next serve to tie the game at 14-all, but Henderson registered the next pair of points for the match victory at a final decision of 16-14.

 

Reader Comments(0)

 
 

Our Family of Publications Includes:

Arc
Newsgram

Powered by ROAR Online Publication Software from Lions Light Corporation
© Copyright 2024