THIBODAUX, La. – The Nicholls State University women's volleyball team will close out the 2013 season on Saturday night, hosting the McNeese State Cowgirls at 7 p.m. in Stopher Gym in the final home match of the year.
 
The Colonels, who have spent the last three weeks on the road playing in five matches, is 5-22 on the season and 2-15 in league play and is out of contention for a spot in next week's Southland Conference Tournament in Corpus Christi, Texas.
 
Before the match, Nicholls will honor its senior class of Brooke Hopper and Carley McInnis as they will participate in their final matches as Colonels.
 
A 6-1 middle blocker and outside hitter from Tomball, Texas, Hopper came to Nicholls after spending two seasons at Wharton County Junior College where she was a Region 14 first team all-conference and all-tournament player. Hopper played in 14 matches and in 33 total sets last season, earning 35 kills, two assists, seven aces, 36 digs and seven total blocks.
 
McInnis has been a staple of the program since joining the team in the 2010 season and will complete her fourth and final season at Nicholls in Saturday's match. A 5-4 defensive specialist from Meraux, La., McInnis has played in 93 matches and in 258 sets during her career. McInnis goes into the match with seven kills, 39 assists, 25 aces, 425 digs and a solo block to her credit.
 
For fans unable to make the match, live stats can be accessed through geauxcolonels.com on your desktop, smartphone or tablet, as well as live streaming of the match through Colonels All-Access.
 
The Opening Serve
The Nicholls State University women's volleyball team returns home for one match this weekend, closing out the 2013 season against the McNeese State Cowgirls in Stopher Gym at 7 p.m. Nicholls has been eliminated from conference tournament contention and will miss the postseason after making it last year. The Colonels still have a lot to play for as they look to snap a season-long, 10-game losing skid and go into the offseason with some confidence after welcoming in a brand-new head coach in Tommy Harold and assistants and nine newcomers to the team in the process. Nicholls has not won since defeating New Orleans and Southeastern Louisiana in consecutive matches, both coming at the start of October. Since that time, The Colonels snapped a five-match sweep streak taking HBU to five sets and earning a set off of Lamar and Sam Houston State last weekend.
 
Against the Lady Cards, the Colonels won the opening set, unfortunately dropping the next three as Lamar seemed to get stronger as the night wore on while the Colonels limped to the finish hitting just .051 as a squad. Kayla Burling was the only player to hit double-digit kills on the night with 10. It was a much different set of circumstances for the group two days later, as Kayla Mashburn was head-and-shoulders the best player for the Colonels that day offensively, as she went gangbusters with 20 kills to finish one shy of tying the match high against 2012 player of the year Deveney Wells-Gibson for the Bearkats.
 
Two players that continued to have standout closes to season were Mikayla Miller and Ainsley Marroccoli. Miller had nine kills in each match last week and combining for nine blocks as well. Marroccoli had double-doubles in both contests as well, to give her five now on the season with 18 assists and 10 digs against Lamar and 23 assists and 10 digs against the Bearkats. Kalynn Egea had 32 digs, keeping her right around her average of four per set. Mashburn is fourth in the league in assists per set with a .36 average, while Kayla Burling remains in the top ten in kills and assists per set coming in sixth in both.
 
The Opposition
The Cowgirls come into the contest 16-15 and 8-9 in league play on the season and clinched a spot in the league tournament with a come-from-behind, 3-2 win over Houston Baptist on Tuesday night in Lake Charles. The Cowgirls are currently the seventh seed as of Thursday night's round of action and can only move as high as the sixth seed depending on what happens Saturday as regular season play comes to a close.
 
Series Records
McNeese State holds a six-game advantage in all-time meetings against the Colonels, winning 40 matches to Nicholls' 34. The Colonels had won each of the last four meetings and six of the last eight going into their meeting earlier this season, but the Cowgirls swept Nicholls and will be looking for the first winning streak over Nicholls in many years.