SE Opens Season With Day One Sweep

Women's Volleyball | 9/2/2016 10:21:00 PM

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 DURANT, Okla. – For the first time since the 2009 season Southeastern volleyball escaped the opening day of the season unscathed, downing Union 3-0 before surviving a 3-2 marathon win over New Mexico-Highlands.
 
The Savage storm open the year 2-0 and will head into day two of their own South Central Classic where they will face Texas A&M-International at noon and Central Oklahoma at 5 p.m.
 
Abby Jameson and Arianna Baker led the offense in the opening win over Union with 10 kills apiece, while Karine Cavalcante and Julia Benford added eight each and Erica Costain chipped in seven.
 
Alissa Benson dished out a match-high 39 assists while adding eight digs and a pair of kills to trigger the offense.
 
Caitlin Cosby led the defense on the back row with 26 digs and was joined by Cavalcante who finished with 10 digs.
 
The Storm closed the first set on a 14-4 run to win 25-19 open a 1-0 lead, and after picking up in the second set with an 8-1 run to open they would pull away for a 25-13 win and take a 2-0 lead.
 
The third set turned on an 8-0 mid-set run which started with a Cavalcante kill and ended with a Jameson kills to turn a two-point deficit into a five point lead and eventually take the third set 25-23.
 
In the finale of day one the Storm got a monster 24 kill performance from Jameson, while Benford added 14 and the duo of Baker and Cavalcante pitched in 12 each.
 
Benson again led the offense efficiently with 48 assists while adding 11 digs and a block.
 
Defensively the team racked up 10.0 blocks for the match, led by Jameson who had five with Baker and Benford adding four apiece.
 
On the back row four players turned in double-digit dig totals, led by the 14 of Cosby, followed by Benson's 11 and 10 each from Kristi Carter and Jameson.
 
A 9-1 run turned a deficit into a led for the Storm in the first set as they took the set 25-20 and opened a 1-0 lead.
 
NMHU led by as many as seven in the second set before SE rallied to knot the score at 21-21, but would drop four of the last five points and the set 25-22.
 
Southeastern dominated the third by jumping out to a 16-5 lead and regaining the match lead at 2-1 with a 125-19 win.
 
NMHU would score the final three points of the fourth set to swing the score to 2-2 and send the match to a deciding fifth set.
 
The score closed late in the set to 10-9 with SE in front, but a Cavalcante kill would trigger a five-point run to finish the set 15-0 and the match at 3-2.