Troy volleyball makes statement wins on the road

Going into the weekend, Southern Miss boasted the best overall record in the Sun Belt at 11-2, with two convincing wins over Louisiana Tech in Sun Belt play in opening week. Nevertheless, the Troy volleyball team traveled to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and walked out with two match wins in a hostile environment to bring them to 3-1 in conference play.

Both matches went four sets, with five of the eight on the weekend being decided by two points. On Friday, Troy took the first two sets before Southern Miss stayed alive, claiming a thrilling third set, 30-28. Southern Miss took the first set Saturday afternoon before Troy won the next three.

“Balance is our secret weapon, but it’s not a secret,” said head coach Josh Lauer. “When we can spread the ball out and have a lot of offensive options cooking, that is when we’re our best.”

Troy's freshmen led the first match, with Isabella Ruether posting 18 kills and Haley Nash logging 23 digs. Both marks set career highs for the young starters. Upperclassmen Ashlynn Axtell and Brooke Forkum also set career highs that night with nine and six total blocks, as Troy set a new season high for total team blocks for the third straight match.

Senior outside hitter Sadie McAda backed up her preseason All-Sun Belt team nomination by tying her season high with 19 kills and digging 16 balls for her tenth double-double of the season. Allie Hazelwood also stuffed the stat sheet for the Golden Eagles with 39 assists, 12 digs, four kills, three blocks and two aces.

This matchup featured the top two teams in the conference in service aces per set with 2.02 for the Golden Eagles and 2.00 for the Trojans. The matches met those expectations, with 32 total aces in eight sets, including 18 for the Trojans. The Trojans earned their aces from many places, with Olivia Kwiakowski, Madison Marx, Kalina Calvillo, Kenzly Foote and Forkum all logging multiple aces for Troy. Meanwhile, the Golden Eagles earned most of theirs from Sheppard Sunni and Hazelwood, who served six and five.

Ruether led the team in kills again in the second match, marking her fourth time doing so in the last five matches. However, Troy featured more balance, with Calvillo and Axtell also breaking double digits in kills.

Maggie Sewell checked into the second set of the first match for Southern Miss for her fourth appearance this season, but she started every set afterward because of the issues she gave Troy as a middle blocker. The senior middle blocker set a career high in total blocks with eight Friday night, then eclipsed it with 12 the next.

Troy volleyball returns home this week to Trojan Arena, continuing conference play against ULM Friday at 6 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. The Warhawks are 1-3 in conference play after defeating Marshall in five sets in their last conference match.