Rachel Giubilato leads the Mustangs in the C-USA Tournament. (Lindsey Perkins)

SMU volleyball defeated Southern Mississippi 3-2 (27-30, 30-28, 26-30, 32-30, 15-11) Thursday in the first round of the C onference USA tournament. SMU is now 1-1 in match-ups versus Southern Miss in 2006.

The Mustangs continue their tournament run today when they take on No. 1 seed Tulsa at noon. SMU advances to 17-14 overall for the season.

Juniors Caitlin Rainbird and Rachel Giubilato each posted double-doubles in the win over the Golden Eagles. Rainbird had 20 kills, 11 digs and two service aces while Giubilato notched 18 kills, 22 digs and 5 blocks. The outside hitters combined for a total of 46 points in the match.

All-Conference freshman Kendra Kahanek had 11 kills and eight blocks against the Golden Eagles. She had the best attack percentage on the Mustang squad with a .391.

Junior Madison Hill directed the offense with 41 assists and 11 digs. Fellow setter Stefanie Kons had 19 assists, four digs and three assisted blocks.

Former C-USA Defensive Player of the Week Candice Davis contributed defensively with 22 digs for the match. The freshman libero also had one service ace.

Golden Eagle standouts Angela Hlavaty and Amanda Huntoon failed to perform up to expectations. Hlavaty only had 11 kills in the entire match, posting a disappointing .070 attack percentage.

Huntoon scored the most points for Southern Miss (21), but it was not enough to lead them to victory. The junior had 17 kills and five digs in the loss.

Mustangs Natalie Peters and Adrienne Zielasko made strong contributions with Peters nailing 16 kills and eight blocks in the match. Zielasko had three kills and four blocks during the SMU victory.

Sophomore defensive specialist Jenny Reyes served up two aces and eight digs to help the Mustangs defeat the Golden Eagles.

UAB defeated UCF in the first round of the tournament and will advance to take on Tulane who received a first round bye.