MT Downs Southern Miss for First Conference Win

Sunday, September 28

Murfreesboro, Tenn.

1:00 p.m.

Middle Tennessee

-510 (11 CUSA)

Southern Miss

-128 (12 CUSA)

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
Southern Miss	14	25	14	22	1
Middle Tennessee St.	25	17	25	25	3

9/28/2014 4:15:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

HIGHLIGHT

Murfreesboro, Tenn. - The Middle Tennessee volleyball team (5-10, 1-1 C-USA) recorded its first Conference USA win of the season with a 3-1 victory over Southern Miss (12-8, 1-2 C-USA) Sunday afternoon at Alumni Memorial Gym.

The offense was on display as the Blue Raiders hit a season-best .306 in the victory while four different players hit over .300 for the contest.

Monét Marshall paced MT with a season-high 16 kills to go along with seven blocks, equaling 22 points and a career-high .682 hitting percentage.

"Monét Marshall had an All-American type of perfomance tonight and our middle had a very good afternoon," said Head coach Matt Peck.

Junior Chelsea Ross and freshman Maya Miller finished second with nine kills apiece and junior Rachel Shaughnessy finished with a line of 7-2-9 for a career-high .556 hitting clip.

Freshman Haley Morton led the team with 21 assists while freshman Jacqueline Lux notched a team-high 10 digs.

MT used a 16-5 run while the first set was tied, 9-9, to capture the first game 25-14. Marshall sparked the run with a kill that was set up by senior Ailime de Freitas before Shaughnessy and Ross combined for seven kills during the run, and Miller getting in on the action with a kill of her own.

The second set would go in Southern Miss' favor as the Golden Eagles stormed out to a 19-9 advantage. MT's 5-0 run closed the gap to seven, 24-17, followed by two kills from sophomore Jazmyne Johnson, a service ace from Ross, a kill from Shaughnessy and an attack error. However, USM would score the final point to take the set, 25-17 and tie the match 1-1.

MT mirrored its first-set performance and again used a big run that propelled them to take the third set 25-14. With the game tied, 8-8, MT outscored USM 17-6 the rest of the way to go into the fourth frame with a 2-1 advantage.

USM took a 16-12 lead to start out the frame before MT took advantage of four USM attack errors, two kills by Marshall and a kill by Miller to cap off a 8-2 run that gave the Blue Raiders a 20-18 advantage.

The Blue Raiders then finished off the Golden Eagles after Marshall finished her exceptional play with a kill to give MT the game four win, 25-22, and the match.

"I thought the difference was opposed to our other matches is we played very well after getting down in game four. Two weeks ago we might not have won this match and we came through and got a big win. I'm just really proud of the team today," said Peck.

The Blue Raiders will return to the court next weekend as they host a pair of C-USA matches starting with UTSA on Friday at 7 p.m., before facing off against La. Tech on Sunday at 1 p.m.