SMU Volleyball Defeats Charleston

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CHARLESTON, S.C. (SMU) – The Mustangs won three straight sets to defeat College of Charleston 3-1 (22-25, 25-15, 25-22, 25-17) in SMU’s opening match at the College of Charleston Classic Friday night. Caroline Young scored a match-high 18 kills and had nine digs to lead SMU to the win.

Maddie Lozano scored 13 kills, and Abbey Bybel added 10 with eight digs. Freshman Morgan Heise led all players with a season-high 18 digs, and Avery Acker finished with 44 assists on SMU’s 60 kills. The Mustangs were out-blocked 9-6 by the Cougars, but had 57 digs to CofC’s 46.

After taking a 2-1 lead in the third set, SMU (7-4) got out to an early 8-4 lead in the fourth and never let the Cougars (9-3) get close the rest of the set. The Mustangs hit .364 and had a side-out percentage of 83, allowing Charleston to hold serve just three times.

The Mustangs built a 10-4 lead to start the second set, but four straight SMU-errors brought the Cougars back to within two before head coach Lisa Seifert called a timeout. Coming out of the huddle, SMU scored the next three points to take the lead back to five, 13-8. Young scored kills on two of SMU’s next three points, pushing the lead to 16-10 and forcing the Cougars to burn their final timeout. SMU out-scored the Cougars 9-5 over the rest of the set to even the match with the 25-15 win.

SMU scored the first four points of the third set, with two more kills by Young. After the Cougars got on the board with the next two points, the Mustangs went on a 5-2 run to stretch the lead to five, 9-4. The Cougars clawed their way back to tie the set 10-10.

After the Cougars took a 16-14 lead, it was SMU’s turn to rally, scoring three straight to take a 17-16 lead with a block, an attack error, forced by the serve of Young, and a kill from Bybel. The Cougars answered with four unanswered points, but SMU rallied to tie the score 20-20. The Cougars ran out of runs as the Mustangs scored five of the next seven to win the set 25-22, taking a 2-1 lead in the match.

Neither team led by more than two points in the first set until the Cougars used back-to-back points to take an 18-15 lead. The Mustangs rallied back to score four of the next five points, tying the set for the eight time, 19-19. Four kills and a block later, the Cougars were serving for the set with a 24-21 lead. The Mustangs managed to fight off the first attempt at set point, but fell 25-22 despite Young’s set-high five kills.

SMU will face Ball State Saturday at 11 a.m. CT, before wrapping up action at the College of Charleston Classic against Alabama A&M at 4 p.m. CT.

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