The Georgia State Panthers lost 3–1 to the Southern Miss Golden Eagles on Oct. 9 at the Wellness Center in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Southern Miss won the opening set 28–26 before Georgia State responded with a 25–20 victory in the second. The Golden Eagles finished the match by taking the final two sets 25–18 and 25–20.
Georgia State finished the match at 7–11 overall and 1–5 in the Sun Belt Conference. Southern Miss improved to 12–5 overall and 3–3 in league play. The result split a series that had been moved to Oct. 8–9 because of the weather forecast, with the Panthers winning Thursday’s meeting 3–1.
Akira Burt led Georgia State with 19 kills, including 11 in the first set. Mina Olgar contributed 10 kills while hitting .471 and adding two service aces. Those performances gave the Panthers productive attacking options, but the team could not sustain enough offense to win the final two sets.
Annelore Engels finished with 36 assists and 18 digs for Georgia State. Dariana Valencia added 14 digs, Sophia Johnson had 12, and Jayden Eaker recorded six blocks. The Panthers held an 11–7 advantage in team blocks, showing that their net defense contributed even as the overall result went against them.
Southern Miss finished with 68 kills to Georgia State’s 44 and hit .209 compared with the Panthers’ .147. Diana Wells and Sadie McAda each supplied 19 kills for the Golden Eagles. The difference in attacking volume helps explain why Georgia State’s blocking advantage was insufficient to reverse the match.
Georgia State returns to the GSU Sports Arena for two matches against the Old Dominion Monarchs. Friday, Oct. 16, is scheduled for 6 p.m. ET with a Pink Out promotion, while Saturday, Oct. 17, is listed for 2 p.m. ET with Greek Night. The home series offers the Panthers an immediate opportunity to make their defense and attacking production work together more consistently.
GSB Take
Georgia State had enough individual production and blocking success to make this loss worth examining beyond the final score. The next step is turning defensive stops into more dependable attacks across an entire match. A home series gives the Panthers a useful setting to address that issue after an uneven but competitive road weekend.