Sept. 15, 2006

Box Score

Box Score

HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- - The Southern Miss volleyball team lost its conference opener, losing to UCF in four games, 3-1 (30-22, 23-30, 23-30, 29-31). The Lady Eagles drop to 6-7 on the season and 0-1, while UCF improved to 4-6 and 1-0.

Stevi Cherry led Southern Miss with 15 kills and Angela Hlavaty added 11 kills. Maia Ivanova and Amy Flarity had 13 and 10 digs, respectively.

Maina Heming led UCF with a match-high 20 kills followed by Lorin Lukas with 14 kills. Schanell Neiderworder recorded 13 digs and Tricia Scott and Lukas added 11 digs a piece.

"I thought we played well, we fought hard," Head Coach Ricci Luyties said. "Their outsides hurt us all night long. We had a couple of blocks on them, but overall their outsides really hurt us. Other than that the match was pretty even."

Southern Miss came out strong in game one and appeared to be hitting on all cylinders, taking an 8-3 lead. UCF fought back to within three points, 11-8, but Southern Miss used a 6-0 run, pushing its lead to 17-8. The Lady Eagles eventually pushed their lead to 10, 26-16, before UCF rallied to cut the lead to six, 28-22. Southern Miss finished the game with an Ashley Petrinec kill and an Andrea Youngblood ball handling error for a 30-22 win.

UCF evened the match 1-1, winning 30-23. UCF jumped out to a 9-4 lead early, but saw that lead cut to three, 11-8, by the Lady Eagles. UCF then went on an 8-2 run, pushing its lead to 19-10. Southern Miss battled to within four points, 27-23, but UCF ended the game with three consecutive points.

Game three went back and forth early with neither team having more than a four-point advantage. Southern Miss battled back from four-points down, 15-11, on a 9-3 run for a 20-18 lead. UCF countered by scoring five straight points to take the lead for good at 23-20. UCF ended the game with a 7-3 run for a 30-23 win.

Game four was close through out the entire game. There were 16 ties and seven lead changes. Southern Miss rallied from a 21-19 deficit to take a 23-21 lead, but UCF came storming back to regain the lead, 26-25. The Lady Eagles took their last lead, 28-27, before UCF closed out the match with a 4-1 run, winning game four, 31-29.

As usual, we didn't take advantage of some of the opportunities we had and it could be the difference in us winning and losing the match with a couple of those points," Luyties said. "We are right there and we are so close and that's been the difference."

Southern Miss returns to action on Saturday, hosting non-conference opponent Troy at 2 p.m.