Denton, Texas – The Missouri Southern women's volleyball team played yet another five-set match as well as a tight four-setter, but the Lions fell on the wrong side of each outing, dropping its opening two matches today at the Denton Volleyfest.
 
Southern (3-3) fell in four sets in the opener to Texas Woman's and then in five sets against East Central. Set scores for the TWU match were 18-25, 25-9, 25-27 and 21-25. The ESU match saw set scores of 22-25, 25-19, 11-25, 26-24 and 10-15.
 
Against TWU, the Lions had 12 kills from Irina Alekseeva, while Amelia Neels and Jaryn Benning had eight kills each. Benning hit .471 and Neels hit 438. Kierson Maydew had seven kills and five blocks, while Abbie Casper posted 31 digs and Sophie Mader had 34 assists.
 
TWU (2-3) had 14 kills from Kaia Saylor and 28 assists from Lizzy Reed.
 
Against ECU (1-6) The Lions saw three post double-figure kills as Alekseeva had 15 kills, while Benning posted 11 and Neels ten. Benning added 14 digs, while Casper had 24 and Fernanda Canedo had 16. Mader had 39 assists in the match.
 
ECU was led by Emma Strickland with 19 kills.
 
The Lions will be back at it tomorrow as Southern takes on Midwestern State at 10 am and Eastern New Mexico at 4 pm.