Marshall University Athletics
Marshall University
Southern Mississippi
Herd Volleyball Dominates Southern Miss, 3-0
10/7/2005 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Oct. 7, 2005
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - The Thundering Herd volleyball team continued to flex its muscle in Conference USA again Friday night as it put away the Southern Miss Golden Eagles 3-0 (30-18, 30-25, 30-20) in the Cam Henderson Center.
With the 3-0 win, the Herd has kept all of its C-USA opponents from taking a game in league play where it improved to 4-0 to stay atop the C-USA standings.
"I thought our offensive attack carried us throughout the match tonight," head coach Mitch Jacobs said. "When our offense is going we are tough to stop and we showed that again tonight."
Marshall improved to 12-4 overall with the win and Southern Miss dropped to 5-7 and 0-4 in Conference USA.
The Thundering Herd took off behind the serving of Taylor Tanner in game one. Tanner served for seven-straight points to help the Herd pull out to an 11-6 lead before Jazzimen Stephens put away a kill for the Golden Eagles to end Marshall's run. Southern Miss would get to within two at 13-11, but the Herd would begin pounding away and build a ten point advantage, 25-15. Kelly-Anne Billingy put away two thunderous kills to end game one 30-18.
In game two, the score was knotted at 11-11 when the Herd would stage another run to pull ahead. Marshall took advantage of several Southern Miss attack errors to take control of game two. The Herd built a 29-21 lead, but USM wouldn't go away quietly. The Golden Eagles pulled to within four at 29-25, but Billingy would blast another kill through the floor for the 30-25 win of game two.
Stephanie Cahill got things going in game three with a booming kill of her own to set the table for the Herd. Marshall would never trail in game three as it outhit the Eagles .400 to -.069 in the frame for the 30-20 win to wrapup the match.
As a team, Marshall outhit the Golden Eagles .327 to .010. Defensively, Marshall had 42 digs opposed to 31 for USM.
On the night, Billingy led the Herd with 16 kills and a .353 hitting percentage. Cahill followed with 10 kills and eight digs and Amber Sims put down nine kills for a .500 hitting percentage. Uche Ndusbisi and Nickie Sanlin had five kills each and .500 hitting clips. Maggie Arias led the Herd with 15 digs in the win.
Senior setter Katie Stein continued to put up big numbers as she posted 43 assists, five digs and three kills on the night to help guide the Herd to its fifth-straight win.
"Tonight was a night when everyone did something to help us all the way through the lineup," Jacobs said. "Now we need to just work to take it to the next step. A good UCF team is coming in here on Sunday so we need to be tough and get it done again."
With the five wins in a row, Marshall has now won 12 of 14 and is undefeated at home this season (4-0). The Herd has won 28 of its last 32 matches in the Cam Henderson Center dating back to 2002.
Also on the night, Jacobs picked up his 75th win as head coach of the Thundering Herd.
Marshall will be in action again Sunday afternoon when it plays host to the UCF Golden Knights at 1 p.m. in the Henderson Center.
