Final Stats McNeese-Nicholls Box Score

THIBODAUX, La. – The Nicholls women's volleyball team showed dominance, resolve and resiliency in its straight-set victory over the McNeese Cowgirls Thursday night, winning the match 25-15, 25-20, 29-27.

With the win the Colonels sweep the season series with McNeese and are guaranteed their first winning season since 2002, when that team won 19 games. 

The Colonels (17-10, 4-7 SLC) played one of their most flawless matches all year hitting .299 as a team with 55 kills and only 11 errors on the night against McNeese (7-18, 2-9 SLC) and is the only team other than UTSA to sweep the Cowgirls this year. Jennifer Brandt finished the match with 16 kills and only one error on .333 hitting, while Rachel Yezak had 14 kills and two errors, hitting .400.

Jordan Karst earned her team leading tenth double-double of the year finishing the match with 49 assists and 17 digs to lead the team, as Yezak collected 16 to earn her seventh double-double of the year.

The Cowgirls put the first two points on the board in the first set, and even held a 3-2 lead after the Colonels tied the set at 2-2. That lead would be the last for McNeese in the set as the Colonels would use an 18 kill, zero error set to take the 25-12 win. In that set alone the Colonels would go on scoring runs of 2, 3, 4 and 5 points to snuff any attempt at a Cowgirl comeback.

The second set proved to be much tougher for the Colonels as McNeese switched its lineup around a bit to counteract the Nicholls powerful offense. There would be eight ties and five lead changes in the set and occurred within the first 24 points of the set. Once again McNeese came out with a two point lead, but held it for only a minute when the Colonels used a three point rally with a Yezak kill and two McNeese errors to take a 3-2 lead. After three side out points made the score 4-4, the Cowgirls regained the lead after a block and Nicholls attack error making the score 6-4.

Nicholls used a three-point rally to take a 7-6 lead after kills by Sarah Terry, Jessica Addicks and a Jeanne Logarbo ace, but a Katie Kennedy kill halted the rally and tied the score at 7-7. Another three point run by the Colonels could have been the cushion the team needed, but McNeese made a go of it scoring four consecutive to take an 11-10 advantage. It was a short lived advantage as Addicks earned another kill to tie the game at 12-12, and it would eventually be the last lead for McNeese in that set as the Colonels 71-percent sideout mark would keep a one, to two, point lead over the Cowgirls for the rest of the set, as the Colonels would close out the second stanza with four straight points to win the second set 25-20.

In the third set, all bets were off as the teams would bump up the ties to 12 instead of the eight that were in the second. Just like in the previous two sets, the Cowgirls earned an opening two point lead that was once again snuffed out by a bad set by McNeese and a Karst ace. The teams traded barbs for the next four points to tie the game at 4-4, but thanks to a couple of three point rallies by the Colonels in the set, took a 13-8 lead. Things would soon change as McNeese would outscore the Colonels 7-2 over the next nine points to tie the game at 15 apiece forcing a Nicholls timeout.

At that point the Cowgirls had the upper hand taking the lead after the timeout, and traded sideouts with the Colonels over the next four plays before taking a 19-17 lead. Scoring three of the next four points to take a 21-18 lead, McNeese called a timeout after the Colonels closed in at 21-20, but the timeout didn't help as Yezak tied the game at 21 with a kill of her own.

From that point each team traded the lead three times making for an exhilarating finish as the Colonels fell behind 22-21, but scored three straight to be within one point of ending the match at 24-22. McNeese didn't give up however, and charged back to tie the game at 24-24 forcing extra points. The Cowgirls took the lead on a Terry attack error, but each team would trade sideout points and leads for the next six points. With the score tied 27-27. Nicholls needing a boost got the final two points after a long rally streak by both teams ended with a Addicks kill, followed by an McNeese attack error ended the match and gave the Colonels the win.

The Colonels were 67-percent on sideout chances on the night as compared to 53-percent by McNeese. Nicholls also capitalized on serves with five aces on the night and only one reception error.

After giving up nearly 70 kills to McNeese in the first match, the Colonels held the Cowgirls to 46 total kills on .215 hitting, as they were led by Nicole Bowden's 17 on the night. Becky Bekelja had 43 assists and eight digs, while Whitney Ellisor had 26 digs.

The Colonels will return to action Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. hosting the Lamar Lady Cardinals for Nicholls' annual breast cancer awareness match.