Magnolia, Ark. – Sophomore Hailey McNee fired a season-high 18 kills, complimented by a career-high .412 (18-4-34) attacking percentage, and senior Amanda Monge continued her recent offensive surge by matching McNee with 18 kills to power Southern Arkansas in its four-set victory over Lyon College Tuesday night at W.T. Watson Center.

"I thought that we came together as a team really well," McNee said. "Our offense is rolling right now. My setters Taylor [Reaume] and Savannah [Pillow] were giving me really good sets and the passers were giving the setters really good passes."

Southern Arkansas (5-12) jumped out to a 14-10 lead in the first set. After a Shelby Lauterbach attacking error, the Lady Muleriders got a kill apiece from freshman Alli O'Banion and McNee and two kills from sophomore Logan Tolbert to go on a 4-0 run. With SAU holding a 22-17 lead late in the first set, Monge fired a kill and followed up with back-to-back service aces to lift the Lady Muleriders to a one-set lead.

Lyon College (6-11) worked the Lady Muleriders to a 10-point tie in the second set. SAU trailed by as many as four at 13-17 before fighting back to a 23-point tie. The Scots would call a timeout and get a kill from Gina Reed and a Makenzie Sharp service ace to tie the match at one set apiece.

McNee had the most productive set in the third set, fueling the Lady Muleriders with four kills in their first six points of the set. After each team committed a service error to give SAU a 15-12 advantage, Monge fired back-to-back kills before the Scots committed an attacking error to push the lead to eight.

With the Lady Muleriders holding a 22-18 lead, McNee would fire her seventh kill of the set before the Scots would commit yet another attacking error. After Emily Sprick recorded a kill for Lyon, Tolbert responded with a powerful shot of her own to give the Lady Muleriders a 2-1 set lead.

The two teams exchanged points to a seven-point tie in the fourth set before SAU would get two Monge kills and a Monge block, securing four of the next five points to take an 11-8 lead. Still holding the lead at 13-10, SAU would make a 3-0 run after a Scot attacking error, an O'Banion ace and a kill from McNee.

The Lady Muleriders would push the lead to 20-14 on kills from Tolbert and McNee and two Scot attacking errors. After Lyon scored six of the next nine points to pull with three, McNee and Lauterbach fired back-to-back kills to secure the match for the Lady Muleriders.

"This win is really big for us," Head Coach Steven Gream said. "It was another stepping stone where we can work on some things that we wanted to work on to prepare for this weekend."

In addition to a season-high 18 kills, McNee also recorded 14 digs to capture her 10^th career double-double.  Reaume recorded her third consecutive double-double, dishing out a career-high 49 assists and recording 11 digs. The Lady Muleriders swung at a .273 (63-22-150) clip to mark the fifth consecutive game swinging at least .200.

The Lady Muleriders take a trip to Oklahoma this weekend where they will face conference opponent Southwestern Oklahoma Friday night at 6 p.m. before taking on Northwestern Oklahoma on Saturday at 2 p.m.