FOLEY, Ala. (JMU Athletics) – James Madison volleyball fell in four sets (20-25, 25-18, 20-25, 21-25) to Arkansas State in the 2025 Sun Belt Conference volleyball championship on Sunday night at the Foley Sports Tourism Center.
JMU slipped to 22-9, while Arkansas State improved to 22-8 and received the automatic bid to the 2025 Division I Women’s Volleyball Championship.
Kennedy Louisell finished with 11 kills, bringing her 2025 season total to 605. Addie Norman hit .429 and also had 11 kills, while Melisa Ilter tied a career-high 10 kills. Julia McNeley recorded 21 digs, while Ayen Nhial had six blocks to bring her Sun Belt tournament total to 29 (2.23 per set).
Louisell and Nhial were both named to the 2025 Sun Belt Conference Championship All-Tournament team.
Addison Collum and Payton Van Veen each finished with 14 kills and hit .353 to pace the A-State offense. The Red Wolves hit .217 as a team.
How It Happened
First Set: Arkansas State 25-20
• Arkansas State used an 8-0 run to turn a 15-14 deficit into a 22-15 lead. The Dukes responded by scoring four of the next five to trim the Red Wolves’ lead to four (23-19),
• Despite the push from JMU, A-State used a pair of kills from Hailey Glunz and Payton Van Veen to put the Dukes away in the first.
Second Set: James Madison 25-18
• The Red Wolves were the first to 15, using a 5-0 run to go ahead 15-12 at the media timeout.
• Out of the break, JMU scored five in a row and gained a 17-15 lead, capped off with a kill from Ayen Nhial.
• After trailing 15-12, JMU closed the set on a 12-3 run to even the match at one set apiece.
Third Set: Arkansas State 25-20
• Arkansas State led JMU 15-14 at the media timeout as both teams battled back and forth.
• The Red Wolves rattled off three straight and took a 19-16 lead, capitalizing on a pair of JMU errors.
• The Dukes cut the A-State lead to 22-20, but the Red Wolves picked up three straight kills to put the Dukes away in the third and take a 2-1 lead in the match.
Fourth Set: Arkansas State 25-21
• After the Dukes gained a 15-14 lead on a block from Nhial and Ilter, Arkansas State used a 3-0 run to take an 18-15 lead as JMU called a timeout.
• JMU scored four of five points to tie the score at 19-19, but A-State closed strong with a 6-2 run to put away the set and secure the match
Match Notes
• Melisa Ilter tied a career-high 10 kills. She also had 10 kills against Western Michigan on Sept. 15, 2024.
• Julia McNeley recorded 21 digs tonight, bringing her season total to 470 – the eighth-most digs in a single-season for a JMU player in the rally-scoring era.
• Kennedy Louisell ended her 2025 season with 605 kills, making her the only player in program history with 600 or more kills in a season in the Division I era. The only other player in JMU history with more kills was Sheila Chittams (615) in 1984, when JMU competed as a Division II team.
• Louisell finished with an average of 4.80 kills per set, the school record. The previous record was held by Janey Goodman, who averaged 4.54 kills per set in the 2016 season.
• Nhial finished the season with 165.0 blocks, the most for a JMU player since M’Kaela White had 172 in 2018 and the third-most for a player in program history.
— JMU Athletics —
