Final Stats LAKE CHARLES, La. – Nicholls freshman outside hitter Kayla Burling had 19 kills and hit .235 for the day, but the McNeese State University Cowgirls hit .317 as a group and had two players finish the match with double-digit kills to defeat the Colonels 25-23, 25-16, 25-17 Saturday afternoon in Lake Charles.

Nicholls (5-18, 2-11 SLC) was three points away from taking the first set against McNeese State (14-12, 6-6) up 22-21, but the Cowgirls got the next three points to get to match point and hold off the Colonels in that set and cruise for the rest of the match.

Burling's 19 kills led all players in the match, as she was the only Colonel with double digit kills with the next closest player being Kayla Mashburn with five. Alyse Barclay finished with 25 assists with Ainsley Marroccoli chipping in seven. Kalynn Egea defensively had 13 digs for Nicholls, as the team produced just 39.

McNeese State's Malina Sanchez had a double-double as she led the Cowgirls with 14 kills and chipped in 13 digs, followed by Sophie Tenbusch with 11. Setter Vanessa Bentley had a double-double for MSU as she led all players with 35 assists and had 12 digs as well. McNeese State had three players finish with double-digit digs, led by libero Kimberlyn Patterson's 18.

In the second set, Nicholls was down three, 10-7, getting an attack error to pull within two. However, the Cowgirls took the next five points to go up 15-8 and force a Nicholls timeout. A bad set out of the timeout made the score 15-9, but three consecutive points by the Cowgirls pushed the lead to nine which eventually grew to 10 as Nicholls hit just .065 in the set to drop the second 25-16.

After hitting so poorly in the second, the Colonels regrouped and hit .229, their best of the set, but it was hard to outdo what the Cowgirls did as they had 18 kills and a .516 percentage to convert 77 percent on sideouts. After falling behind 9-4, Nicholls took six of the next 11 points to pull within three at 13-10. Although it was a slim margin, McNeese State outscored Nicholls 6-4 to make it 19-14 Cowgirls forcing a Colonel timeout. The timeout worked as Nicholls scored just three more points for the rest of the set, getting swept with the 25-17 set decision.

The Colonels will be back in action next week, traveling to face Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Houston Baptist.