DALLAS (SMU) – No. 11 SMU Volleyball earned its fourth sweep of the season in a 25-16, 25-18, 25-15 win over the Clemson Tigers (12-4, 0-4 ACC) Sunday afternoon in Dallas. The Mustangs improved to 10-4 on the season and 2-2 in league play.

SMU hit .367 in the match, its highest percentage in ACC play through four matches. Jadyn Livings led the Mustangs with nine kills and six digs, while hitting .471. Averi Carlson notched her fifth double-double of the season with 28 assists and 14 digs, which tied a season-high defensively for the senior.
 
Natalia Newsome added eight kills on 13 swings, hitting .545, with a match-high five blocks. Jordyn Schilling added 11 digs, four assists and two aces. The Mustangs held the Tigers to a .100 attack percentage, marking the fourth time this season that SMU has held its opponent to a percentage of .100 or less.
 
MATCH NOTES: 

• Carlson notched her 100th career ace on the first serve of the match Sunday against the Tigers.
• Carlson also logged her 5th double-double of the season and 27th of her career.
• Schilling collected double-digit digs for the ninth time this season.
• Schilling finished the afternoon with two aces, her third time this season with multiple aces in a match.
• The Mustangs are now 3-3 against Clemson, winning each of the last three meetings. SMU has swept the Tigers in each of those three matches
• Christa Wilburn put in three service aces Sunday afternoon, the third time this season she has racked up three or more aces.
• SMU is now 7-0 this season when holding its opponents an under a .200 attack percentage.

 
HOW IT HAPPENED:
SET ONE | SMU used a 10-0 run in the first set to run past the Tigers after Clemson kept pace with the Mustangs up to the 14-14 mark. Livings logged four of her nine kills of the match during the stretch. The Mustangs went on to win the frame 25-16, holding the Tigers to a .077 clip in the first set, while hitting a match high .435 themselves. Livings finished the frame a perfect 5-of-5 in the opener. SMU was also lethal at the service line, playing in five of its seven aces in the first set alone.
 
SET TWO | Another middle of the set run proved to make the difference for SMU in the second. After a service error by the Mustangs, Madison Scheer helped SMU side out by put down a kill that spearheaded a 4-0 run, putting SMU up 17-12 and forcing the Tigers into a timeout. Clemson cut its deficit back to two, but another four-point stretch got the Mustangs into the red zone, where they were then able to close it out. SMU went up 2-0 in the match with a 25-18 victory in set two. Carlson spread the love evenly to her hitters all night, but specifically in set two, where six different Mustangs had a kill in the frame and SMU hit .379. The Mustangs' block stepped up in the second set with a 5-0 advantage in team rejections.
 
SET THREE | SMU continued its dominance in the third, jumping off to a 10-5 advantage. The Mustangs expanded their lead to eight on back-to-back points featuring a block from Malaya Jones and Newsome, followed by a kill from Jones to go up 18-10 and force Clemson into another timeout. SMU went on to win the frame 25-15, its most decisive set of the match by holding the Tigers to a .029 hitting percentage with nine kills and eight errors. Jones led the way for SMU offensively in the final set with four kills. Seven of Carlson's 14 digs on the night came in the third set.
 
SMU LEADERS:
SMU Kills Leader: Jadyn Livings (8)
SMU Assist Leader: Averi Carlson (28)
SMU Digs Leader: Averi Carlson (14)
SMU Blocks Leader: Natalia Newsome (5)
SMU Ace Leader: Christa Wilburn (3)
SMU Points Leader: Natalia Newsome (10.5)
 
Up Next: SMU will begin a four-match road stretch on Friday, October 10, in Tallahassee against Florida State. First serve is set for 5:30 p.m. CT with the match being streamed on ACCNX.