Tulane University
Southern Miss
Shepard Leads Way to Sweep of Southern Miss
Nov 28, 2010 | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 27, 2010
Box Score (PDF) | Season Statistics (PDF)
NEW ORLEANS - Senior Lindsey Shepard saved her best for last as she posted a match-high 14 kills and posted the second highest single match hitting percentage to help the Tulane Volleyball team grab a three-set sweep of Southern Miss on Saturday (Nov. 27) evening at Fogelman Arena in the 2010 season finale. The Green Wave won the match by scores of 25-16, 25-17, 25-16 to win the final match for seniors Amaris Genemaras and Lindsey Shepard.
"The team was fired up tonight," said Tulane head coach Sinisa Momic. "We wanted to play a really good match tonight and show how much we had improved from the beginning of the season. We followed the game play and stopped their main offensive option and after that they got kind of lost offensively. We tried to use our biggest hitters when we needed to. Milica played well, Izabela was good, Lindsey really played well and Amaris was digging well all night. It was really good for this team, to show signs of what they are capable of doing."
Tulane (13-19, 10-10 Conference USA) trailed 5-3 in the opening set before a pair of kills by Milica Jovic, a setting error and a block by Lindsey Shepard and Jovic pushed the Green Wave into the lead for good. After a Southern Miss (19-12, 12-8 C-USA) kill, three more TU points pushed the lead back to four and an Azarri Badawi kill later in the set gave the Olive and Blue a 16-11 advantage. In the opening set, Tulane posted a .419 hitting percentage and limited the Golden Eagles to just a .071 attacking percentage.
In the second set, Tulane again trailed early on, falling behind 4-2, but a service rotation by Lilly Wolfe put four points on the board and gave the Green Wave the lead. Wolfe posted a service ace and freshman Cori Martone chipped in a kill and a block to make it 6-4 in favor of Tulane. Later in the set, during a Mel Mandelbaum service rotation, Tulane expanded their lead to 14-8 when Shepard posted a pair of kills and Genemaras added two blocks. Shepard six kills in the second set, adding two blocks, and Martone posted two kills and two blocks in a second set win.
The third set was Tulane from start to finish, with Shepard giving the Green Wave the early lead and later finishing off the match with the final kill. Tulane took an early 1-0 lead, with USM knotting things up at 1-1, but five straight points from the Olive and Blue made it a 6-1 match. The lead swelled to ten points when Martone posted her fourth kill of the set to make it an 18-8 match and Mandelbaum set up Shepard for the final kill of the match. It marked the final kill for the senior Shepard, who had five in the set, and gave Tulane their tenth Conference USA win of the season.
Shepard grabbed a season-high 14 kills, adding six blocks, while Jovic chipped in 11 kills and Izabela Grot added ten more. Lilly Wolfe handed out a match-high 22 assists, while Mandelbaum accounted for 21 helpers. Nikki Osuna tied for the match-high with ten digs and the Green Wave hit .361 as a team in the three-set victory.
"Lindsey and Amaris have accomplished so much in their career," Momic said. "They were a big reason that we accomplished so much as a team. They helped us advance to our first NCAA Tournament appearance in school history and played a lot of key points. They also did a great job in the classroom and really represented our program well. We are really going to miss them."
Genemaras and Shepard completed their careers with 87 victories, winning the first Conference USA Regular Season Championship in school history and advancing to back-to-back NCAA Tournaments in 2008 and 2009, the only two NCAA appearances in school history.
--TulaneGreenWave.com--
