HATTIESBURG, Miss. (10/3/24) – Arkansas State volleyball won its fifth straight match on Thursday, topping Southern Miss 3-2 (24-26, 25-22, 21-25, 25-12, 15-13) inside the Southern Miss Wellness Center.
A-State (13-2, 3-0 SBC) rallied back from a set down twice to force a fifth set and totaled a season-high 17 blocks in the win over the Golden Eagles (6-9, 2-1). With the win, the Red Wolves moved to 3-0 in league play for the first time since 2016.
The Red Wolves hit .144 in the match, while holding USM to a .091 clip. A-State has held its opponent to a sub-.100 clip in all three matches to start league play. Of the 17 blocks, Haley Glunz had a hand in 10 of them – a career high and the most by an A-State player in a match since 2021.
Kaitlin Whitlock led all players with 17 kills – tying her season-best – and 17 digs with a pair of blocks. Daedrianna Cail was error-free offensively with 13 kills on 18 swings for a .722 clip, while knocking down six blocks. Grace Wiley also set a career-high in blocks with six to go along with six kills, and Devyn Lewis had eight kills with five digs and two blocks. Setters Erin Madigan (26 assists) and Valeria Ortiz (24) combined to hand out 50 assists.
Sarah Martinez led A-State in digs with 26, while Mia Maloney matched her season high with 10.
Defense reigned in the opening set, with both teams hitting at sub-.200 clips. A-State mounted to an early 8-3 lead following back-to-back blocks from Glunz and Wiley, but USM rallied back to reclaim a 14-13 lead when Franky Panunzio and Torrey Tkach teamed up on the block. The Red Wolves moved back ahead and held set point up 24-23, but Izzy Kronenberg propelled the hosts to the 26-24 first-set victory with three kills in a row to end the frame.
The second set saw another back-and-forth battle in which neither team led by more than three. A-State, however, came back from a 21-18 deficit to take seven of the last eight points of the stanza to win 25-22 and even up the match at a set apiece, clinching the set on a Whitlock kill.
A-State surged out to an early 11-7 lead in the third set, but Southern Miss kept the deficit within four points until Aysu Dalogullari capped a 4-0 run with an ace to tie it at 19. After Whitlock tied the set at 21 with a kill, the Golden Eagles took four straight points to win 25-21 and lead 2-1 in the match.
The Red Wolves used a 15-3 run to seize momentum in the fourth set, in which they hit .351 on 14 kills to just one error. A-State maintained its double-digit lead en route to a 25-12 victory to send the match into a decisive fifth set.
The teams traded leads three times with nine ties in the fifth set, with A-State using a 4-0 run to claim a 12-11 lead. After a pair of sideouts by each squad, Whitlock gave the Scarlet and Black match point with a kill, and then Lewis and Cail teamed up for the match-clinching block.
NEXT UP
A-State returns to action Friday night against Southern Miss, with first serve slated for 6 p.m. in Hattiesburg. The match will air live on ESPN Plus.
SOCIAL MEDIA
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