11-17-24
The Thundering Herd Volleyball Team closed out its year by hosting the Southern Miss Golden Eagles following back-to-back road series against Old Dominion University and Appalachian State University. Marshall has been playing much better as of late, sweeping the two-game series against ODU, and hanging with App. State in its previous match to force a fifth set against the Sun Belt Conference East Division leader. Unfortunately, the Herd was sitting in last place in the SBC East Division coming into the final season series, so all glimmers of making it into Sun Belt Conference Tournament play had faded out.
This unfortunate news did not deter Marshall (13-14, 4-10 SBC) from playing its heart out against Southern Miss (9-17, 5-9 SBC), as the Herd was able to salvage the taste of victory as it heads into the offseason.
The first match of the series took place on Thursday, and Marshall was able to close out the first set by a score of 25-20. The second set was neck-and-neck, but Southern Mississippi’s sophomore outside hitter Sadie McAda tallied a kill to stretch the Golden Eagles’ lead to 20-17. McAda had the most kills throughout the two contests on either team with 33 total.
Marshall battled back, and after a couple kills by junior middle blocker Beatrice Ciccarellli and a handful of USM attacking errors, Marshall would take the second set 25-23. Ciccarelli led both squads with eight blocks in the series.
Southern Miss would go on to outplay Marshall in the third by a score of 25-19, and a tight fourth set would give Marshall a victory in game one with a final score of 3-1.
The teams returned the following night for the Thundering Herd’s senior night. Marshall coach Ari Aganus would give all four seniors significant playing time in their final game in kelly green, and none of them disappointed in the slightest.
Senior opposite Olivia Fogo played tremendously, tying her season-high in kills with 13. Senior setter Brynn Brown completed her star-studded Marshall career with another gem, having a double-double of 27 assists and 12 digs, but also managed to add seven kills as well. Brown finished fifth in Marshall’s all-time assists record book with 2508 in her career. Finally, seniors Taylor Megan and Sarah Stratton were both second in blocks for the Herd with two apiece.
These fantastic performances by the Marshall seniors, along with 13 kills from freshman outside hitter Audrey Geer, led to a season-ending sweep for the Thundering Herd. Geer led the Herd with 24 kills in the series and added on 31 digs as well.
The Sun Belt Conference decided to change the postseason conference tournament this year, allowing only the top 5 teams from each division to qualify. Along with that, the SBC decided only divisional records would translate to divisional standings, instead of conference records in total. So, the Thundering Herd ended the year with a 15-14 overall record, and a 6-10 SBC record, but unfortunately it did not fare as well against divisional opponents, going 2-10 against teams in its own East Division, while finishing 4-0 against squads from the West Division. These factors translate to Marshall finishing last in the Sun Belt Conference East Division; however, this Marshall squad began the season with eight newcomers and seemed to put things together tremendously late in the year.
So, there will be no postseason for Marshall volleyball this season, but the 2025 campaign looks to be promising and destined for improvement for the Herd.