HARRISONBURG, Va. (JMU Athletics) – James Madison volleyball won its fifth straight match, downing the Marshall Thundering Herd 3-1 (25-13, 25-19, 23-25, 25-19) on Friday evening at 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 percentage. It is the ninth match this season that the Dukes have hit .300 or greater as a team.
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, while also adding eight digs. Defensively, Julia McNeely had 14 digs to lead JMU, and Anna Wilson led the Dukes with six blocks.
Emma Barnett paced the Thundering Herd with 21 kills and seven 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 control, going up 17-6 on a kill from Addie Norman. JMU closed out the set with a kill from Louisell in dominant fashion.
Second Set: James Madison 25-19
• Marshall took an 11-9 lead, but JMU scored five straight points to swing ahead 14-11 and force a timeout from the Thundering Herd.
• Down 21-16, Marshall scored two straight to trim the lead to three (21-18). The Dukes scored three of the last four points of the set to go ahead 2-0.
Third Set: Marshall 25-23
• Both teams played close to the media timeout, where Marshall held a slim 15-14 lead.
• A kill from Louisell put JMU ahead 22-19, forcing a timeout from the Thundering Herd.
• Following the timeout, Marshall used a 6-1 run to storm ahead and take the set.
Fourth Set: James Madison 25-19
• JMU took control of the fourth set early as Marshall called a pair of timeouts and trailed 16-8.
• JMU led 19-9 before Marshall scored five of six to trim the Dukes’ lead to 20-15.
• The Thundering Herd battled back to a 23-19 deficit on a kill from Carys Kerr, but a pair of attacking errors from Marshall gave JMU the match.
Match Notes
• JMU won its ninth straight match against Marshall, improving to 16-5 all-time against the Thundering Herd. The Dukes are now 6-0 against 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 total wins (11).
• Through 16 matches, Louisell has 371 kills in 69 sets, averaging 5.38 per set. She is 14 away from entering the top 10 JMU single-season kills list, while her kills average would blow past the school record of 4.64 set by Janey Goodman in the 2016 season.
Up Next
James Madison will head to Conway, S.C., for a pair of matches against Coastal Carolina on Oct. 17-18.
— JMU Athletics —
