HAMMOND, La. – Winners of the last two Southland Conference championships, the Southeastern Louisiana Lady Lions protected home court with a 3-1 win over the East Texas A&M University volleyball team on Saturday afternoon at the University Center via set scores of 25-17, 25-15, 19-25, 25-21.
 
Southeastern improves to 13-5 on the season overall and 5-1 in Southland play, while East Texas A&M drops to 4-13 overall and 2-4 against SLC action.
 
The match started with the first three points going to Southeastern, who built up a 4-1 lead, but East Texas A&M roared back to take its first lead at 6-5 on a kill by MJ Klaumann (Emerald Isle, N.C.).

With East Texas A&M leading the first set, 11-9, SLU went on a 6-1 run to jump ahead 15-12 and did not trail again in the set. After a pair of points to come within one by East Texas A&M, Southeastern mustered up another 7-1 run and closed it out on a kill by Abby Bailey.
 
Like the first set, Southeastern had a 4-1 lead to begin the second, but this time, East Texas A&M could not come back to take a lead, as Southeastern used an 8-2 run in the middle of the set and won the set on an attacking error.
 
Despite a 4-1 lead in the third set by Southeastern, ETAMU tied the set at five and then went on a 6-1 run to jump ahead 11-6. East Texas A&M had a lead as big as eight in the third set and a kill by Nevaeh Smith (San Antonio – O'Connor) delivered the set win for the Lions.
 
East Texas A&M hit .226 in the third set, while restricting Southeastern to hit just .111.
 
Three of the first four points of the fourth set went to Southeastern, but a 4-1 run gave East Texas A&M a 7-5 lead. Southeastern won the next seven and the smallest deficit for ETAMU from that point was two points as a kill by Kyra McKelvey clinched the match for Southeastern.

For the second match in a row, Gracie Campbell (Klein Oak) had a double-double as she posted 13 kills to go along with 14 digs, while Smith had seven blocks and Peyton Roper (Converse – Judson) had six.
 
Haley Mullaney (Victory Christian Academy) added 23 assists, while Katelyn Pritchard (McAllen) had 10 assists, and Jade Washington (Waco – Midway) had 21 digs.
 
UP NEXT
East Texas A&M hosts Nicholls on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. for the annual Pink Out match. Tickets can be purchased at LionAthletics.com/tickets.