[October 25, 2007]

Contact: Houston Taylor, SID

ARKADELPHIA, Ark. – Henderson State’s Edith Musebe (Mu-see-bee) smashed 30 kills to lead the Lady Reddies past Southern Arkansas, 3-1, (30-13, 30-21, 26-30, 30-20) in Gulf South Conference volleyball action Thursday at the Duke Wells Center.

Musebe, a 6-2 senior out of Nairobi, Kenya, had 69 attacks on the night, connecting for a .391 hitting percentage. She also had six total blocks in the match, including four solo. Musebe got help from Emily Trudgeon and Rose Euppah, who finished with 12 and 11 kills, respectively. Rachel Norton accounted for 55 assists for her teammates. Bethany Wright had a match-high 27 digs.

The Lady Muleriders shot themselves in the foot with 37 attack errors, hitting just .098 in the match. Shelly Jones posted 13 kills, Kristina Daily chipped in 12, and Cristina Correa added 11. Andrea Spradlin finished with 27 assists, while Kayli Kerr had 14. Mallory McKee led defensively with 22 digs, Jones had 16, and Spradlin finished with 10.

Daily’s 12 kills moved her to the top of the all-time kills list at SAU. The 5-9 senior from Houston, Texas (Cypress Falls HS) came into Thursday’s match needing just five kills to move past Shanna Hamilton, who had 1,183 from 1995-98. Daily now has 1,191 kills in her four-year career at Southern Arkansas.

The Lady Muleriders are still mathematically in contention for the final GSC West Division berth in the post-season conference tournament. Falling to 4-7 in the GSC puts them 1½ matches back of Ouachita Baptist (5-5 GSC), who don’t play in league play again until facing SAU in Magnolia on Tuesday. OBU’s final GSC match is at Harding on November 2. The best Southern Arkansas can hope for is to sweep the Lady Tigers on Tuesday, get a Harding win over OBU, and let the tiebreaker decide the issue.

First, the Lady Muleriders will hold senior day on Sunday as they step out of conference play to entertain Texas College in a 3 p.m. match.