Southern Miss volleyball closes regular season at Marshall
Southern Miss will play its final regular-season volleyball matches at Marshall, with the teams scheduled to meet Thursday and Friday at the Cam Henderson Center in Huntington, West Virginia. The Golden Eagles and Thundering Herd are both 7-7 in Sun Belt Conference play.
The schedule lists first serve at 6:30 p.m. Central time Thursday and 5 p.m. Friday. Southern Miss is 16-9 overall, while Marshall is 14-11. The Sun Belt tournament is scheduled to begin Nov. 19 in Foley, Alabama.
Southern Miss split its final home series against South Alabama. The Golden Eagles lost the opener 3-1 despite setting a season high with 97 digs. Sunni Sheppard led the match with 27 digs, and Sadie McAda had 20 digs and 13 kills for her 18th double-double of the season. Allie Hazelwood finished with 43 assists and 16 digs.
Southern Miss won the rematch 3-0, its first home conference sweep of the season. The Golden Eagles had 47 kills to South Alabama’s 35 and 63 digs to the Jaguars’ 56, while hitting .205. McAda posted 16 kills and 10 digs for her 19th double-double. Hazelwood reached 1,000 career assists and recorded her ninth double-double; Diana Wells added 11 kills, and Sheppard led the match with 19 digs.
Southern Miss finished 6-6 against divisional opponents and earned the West’s fifth seed in the conference tournament for the third consecutive season. It is scheduled to face East fourth seed Coastal Carolina in the opening round.
In Sun Belt matches, Southern Miss ranks first in digs per set at 18.77 and second in assists per set at 12.70. The Golden Eagles are fourth in points per set (17.30) and kills per set (13.70), and fifth in aces per set (1.54). Hazelwood leads the conference with 10.49 assists per set, while McAda ranks third in kills per set (3.95) and Sheppard third in digs per set (4.85).
Marshall has lost its past four matches, including two four-set defeats to App State last weekend. In conference play, the Herd rank seventh in kills per set (12.53), sixth in digs per set (14.93) and eighth in hitting percentage (.212). Maddie Smith leads Marshall with 3.45 kills per set, setter Kahea Carvalho averages 6.80 assists, Emma Sayre leads in digs with 3.79 per set, and Beatrice Ciccarelli averages 1.02 blocks per set.
Marshall holds a 15-14 edge in the teams’ 29 meetings. The programs have shared a conference since 2005 and both moved from Conference USA to the Sun Belt in 2022. Marshall swept the series in Huntington in 2024; Southern Miss swept the 2025 series in Hattiesburg.
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