Dukes Down Marshall in 4 Sets

HARRISONBURG, Va. – James Madison volleyball gained its fifth straight match, downing the Marshall Thundering Herd 3-1 (25-13, 25-19, 23-25, 25-19) on Friday night on the Convocation Center.

JMU (12-6, 5-1 Sun Belt) hit .301 and recorded 11 blocks, holding Marshall (9-10, 1-5 SBC) to a .164 hitting proportion. It is the ninth match this season that the Dukes have hit .300 or better as a workforce.

Kennedy Louisell led the Dukes’ offensive output with 23 kills, hitting .410 (23-7-39) for her ninth match with 20-plus kills this season, whereas additionally including eight digs. Defensively, Julia McNeley had 14 digs to guide JMU, and Anna Wilson led the Dukes with six blocks.

Emma Barnett paced the Thundering Herd with 21 kills and 7 digs.

How It Happened
First Set: James Madison 25-13

• JMU jumped out to an 8-1 lead, capped by an ace from Rebecca Watkins.
• The Dukes remained in management, going up 17-6 on a kill from Addie Norman. JMU closed out the set with a kill from Louisell in dominant vogue.

 
Second Set: James Madison 25-19

• Marshall took an 11-9 lead, however JMU scored 5 straight factors to swing forward 14-11 and power a timeout from the Thundering Herd.
• Down 21-16, Marshall scored two straight to trim the result in three (21-18). The Dukes scored three of the final 4 factors of the set to go forward 2-0.

 
Third Set: Marshall 25-23

• Both groups performed near the media timeout, the place Marshall held a slim 15-14 lead.
• A kill from Louisell put JMU forward 22-19, forcing a timeout from the Thundering Herd.
• Following the timeout, Marshall used a 6-1 run to storm forward and take the set.

 
Fourth Set: James Madison 25-19

• JMU took management of the fourth set early as Marshall known as a pair of timeouts and trailed 16-8.
• JMU led 19-9 earlier than Marshall scored 5 of six to trim the Dukes’ result in 20-15.
• The Thundering Herd battled again to a 23-19 deficit on a kill from Carys Kerr, however a pair of attacking errors from Marshall gave JMU the match.

 
Match Notes

• JMU gained its ninth straight match towards Marshall, enhancing to 16-5 all-time towards the Thundering Herd. The Dukes are actually 6-0 towards Marshall as Sun Belt foes.
• The Dukes recorded eight aces for the third consecutive match.
• JMU improved to 12-6 this season, eclipsing its 2024 mark for complete wins (11).
• Through 16 matches, Louisell has 371 kills in 69 units, averaging 5.38 per set. She is 14 away from coming into the highest 10 JMU single-season kills listing, whereas her kills common would blow previous the college report of 4.64 set by Janey Goodman within the 2016 season.

 
Up Next
James Madison will head to Conway, S.C., for a pair of matches towards Coastal Carolina on Oct. 17-18.