Magnolia, Ark. – The Southern Arkansas volleyball team had three players with at least 11 kills to put away conference foe Arkansas Monticello, 3-1 (25-19, 25-18, 20-25, 25-16), and senior Amanda Monge tied a career high with 17 kills to sweep Central Baptist, 3-0 (25-17, 25-14, 25-13), to go a perfect 2-0 in the SAU Tri-Match Tuesday at W.T. Watson Center.

Southern Arkansas 3, Arkansas-Monticello 1

SAU (2-11, 1-2 GAC) got off to an explosive start in the first set, scoring seven of the first nine points on five kills. With an 8-5 lead, the Lady Muleriders went on a 4-0 run to maintain a comfortable 12-5 distance from the Cotton Blossoms. UAM (3-5, 1-2 GAC) would get to within three points at 17-20, but SAU would score the next four points via an Alli O'Banion kill and three Cotton Blossom errors to push the lead to seven and eventually got a kill from Monge to put away the first set.

The Lady Muleriders were distributing the ball well throughout the entire match and had four different players (Shelby Lauterbach, Hailey McNee, Monge and Logan Tolbert) with three kills in the second set. SAU swung at an impressive .355 (14-3-31) clip while limiting UAM to a mere .105 (11-7-38) attacking percentage in the second set to take a pivotal 2-0 set lead.

"It's really important to spread the ball out on offense because if you have the same player swing every time they are going to know how to play defense on you," Lauterbach said. "Blockers are going to sit on that one hitter the whole time so it's really important that everybody gets the ball dispersed evenly."

The reason that 2-0 set lead is pivotal is because Head Coach Steven Gream was 52-0 before the match started when holding a 2-0 set lead at SAU. After dropping the third set, the Lady Muleriders got five kills in six attempts from McNee in the fourth set to push Gream's 2-0 set-lead record to 53-0. In addition, the win marked Gream's 200^th career win as a head coach.

"Anytime a coach can get 200 wins, it's a great honor," Head Coach Steven Gream said. "That means you've been in the league long enough to do it and you've had the right players to do it. It's all about the kids. The kids are the ones that do the job. I just lead them in the right direction. We've been very fortunate to have the right players to be able to do that.  Getting the win at home against Monticello in one of our rival games made it a little bit more meaningful."

Lauterbach recorded a season-high 11 kills and McNee recorded her ninth double-double of her career, firing 12 kills and digging 14 balls in the match. Junior Taylor Reaume contributed heavily with her third double-double of the season after serving up 37 assists and recording 11 digs.

Southern Arkansas 3, Central Baptist 0

SAU (3-11) utilized a season-high .370 team attacking percentage to put away Central Baptist (3-9) in three sets. The Lady Muleriders scored 10 of the last 13 points in the first set, 15 of the last 19 points in the second set and 14 of the last 18 points in the third set to capture the win.

"Full credit to my team," Monge said after tying her career high with 17 kills. "I fed off of their energy. They really kept me up – kept me going. The sets were on point. The passes were on point. Everyone contributed fully to me being able to put the ball down the way I did."

Monge's .593 (17-1-27) attacking percentage currently stands as fourth in the Great American Conferece in attacking percentage in a single match. Libero Hannah Rice also recorded 16 digs in the three-set match. 

The Lady Muleriders continue their homestand Friday night at 7 p.m. against another Great American Conference opponent in Southeast Oklahoma at W.T. Watson Center.