Final Stats HUNTSVILLE, Texas – The Nicholls women's volleyball team got 20 kills from Kayla Mashburn, as well as a double-double from her and Ainsley Marroccoli, but the Colonels were unable to keep up with the balanced attack from Sam Houston State and fell in four sets, 19-25, 19-25, 25-19, 17-25, Saturday afternoon in Huntsville.

The Colonels (5-22, 2-15 SLC) hit .141 as a group and pushed an opponent to more than three sets for the third consecutive contest, earning double-digit kills as a squad in all four and included hitting a game-high .206 in the third set which the team captured to push it to four.

Mashburn was the only Nicholls player to finish with double-digit kills and finished the day hitting .188 on 69 total swings to just seven errors with her 20 kills, as she was one of three players to finish with 10 or more digs for the Colonels for her fourth double-double of the season. Mikayla Miller continued her offensive push as of late finishing with nine kills and eight total blocks.

Marroccoli led the team with 23 assists and also finished with 10 digs for her fifth double-double of the season, while Alyse Barclay had 14 and three assisted blocks. Kalynn Egea led the team with 16 digs, earning six in the second set alone.

Sam Houston State (16-9, 13-3) was led by Deveney Wells-Gibson's 21 kills, 19 digs and two blocks, followed by Haley Neisler's 16 kills and .297 percentage to go along with her two solo blocks and two block assists. Tayler Gray finished the day with 51 assists, while Wells-Gibson and Claire Kirkpatrick led in digs with 19 each.

The Colonels came out early and set the tone that they were not going to back down to last season's regular season champs, as throughout the day they would force 29 ties and help break 12 lead changes, none more so than the 10 and five in the opening set. Nicholls forced the last tie of the first set with it tied at 16, as Sam Houston took two of the next three to go up 18-17. After the same over the next three points, the Bearkats went on a 3-0 run to make it 22-18 and hold Nicholls to just one more point for the rest of the set to win 25-19.

In the next set, the Colonels battled from down 17-12 to pull within one of the Bearkats at 18-17, but the offense stalled once again and allowed Sam Houston to go on a six-point swing to lead 24-17 and eventually win 25-19.

Hoping to avoid the sweep, Nicholls broke a 13-all tie by going on a 6-1 run to take a 19-14 lead which included multiple attack errors by the Bearkats, that the home side would never be able to overcome as the Colonels cruised to the 25-19 third set win with a Mashburn kill set up by Marroccoli.

In the fourth and final set, Nicholls led 9-8 early but another 6-0 run by Sam allowed the Bearkats to go up 14-9, with that lead eventually growing to 19-13 It was enough of a cushion to pull away from the Colonels for the rest of the set to win 25-17.

Nicholls will end the season next Saturday at home, taking on the McNeese State Cowgirls at 7 p.m. in Thibodaux.