TROY, Ala. ? The South Alabama women’s volleyball team fought hard but dropped a 3-1 (28-30, 35-33, 33-31, 30-24) decision to in-state rival Troy Saturday afternoon at Trojan Arena.
The win improves the Trojans to 9-20 overall and 3-10 in the Sun Belt. The Lady Jags fall to 5-20 and 0-13 in SBC action with the loss. South Alabama will return to Mobile to take on Middle Tennessee on Nov. 3, at 7 p.m. and close out the home portion of its schedule when the Jags take on Western Kentucky on Nov. 4 at 2 p.m.
In the opener after Troy reeled off four unanswered points to grab a 13-10 lead, South Alabama began to battle back and chip away at the Trojan advantage. Still trailing by three at 15-12, Brittany Blackwelder ignited a 9-2 Jaguar run to give USA a 21-17 lead. Troy kept game one close over the next few points and tied the contest back up at 23-23 after back-to-back kills from Megan Gilroy. Behind Blackwelder’s offense, USA again pushed its advantage out to two at 27-25. Troy again kept battling and tied the contest back up at 27-27, but the Jags did not allow TU to get any further and pushed across three of the final points to take game one. Lauren Robbins sealed the 30-28 Jag victory in the opener with her fifth kill.
The second contest of the match was tight throughout. Neither team was able to take more than a two point advantage on the other for the first half of the game until tied at 14-14, USA was able to push across three straight points. The scoring spurt was capped off by a Robbins’ ace. A block assists from Blackwelder and Kalyn Hundley later gave the Jags a 20-16 advantage. Troy kept fighting and after an attack error from USA, retook the lead at 28-27. In extra points, Jennifer White broke a 33-33 tie and the Trojans captured the final point of the second game to even up the match at one game apiece with a 34-32 win.
The Jags came out in the third game and raced out to a quick 7-3 lead. Hundley dropped in consecutive service aces to give USA the four point advantage. Troy again batted back and tied the contest back up at 9-9. Tied at 13-13, the Ashley Carmichael ignited a 10-1 Trojan run to give the host a 23-14 lead. A kill from Jennifer Johnson ended the Troy run and started a 6-0 spurt for the Jags. After the falling behind by six again (26-20), USA kept battling and tied the contest back up at 27-27 after Johnson’s second aced of the game. For the second straight game, the two clubs went to extra points and again the host Trojans were able to outlast the Jags to take the third contest 33-31.
Holding a 2-1 match lead, Troy came out in game four and took the early advantage, jumping out to a quick 5-1 lead. The Trojans led by as many as seven on multiple occasions. Jean McCarthy gave the Trojans an 18-11 advantage with an ace, but the Jags answered right back with five unanswered points to trim the deficit to 18-16. That was as close as South Alabama got the rest of the way. After Jenna Swilley slammed down a kill two points later to cut the score to 19-17, Troy pushed across seven of the next nine points to stretch the lead back out to 26-19. McCarthy sealed the 30-24 game four victory with her ninth kill of the game and 17th of the match.
Blackelder, Robbins and Swilley led the Jaguar attack on the day finishing with 16, 14 and 10 kills, respectively. McCarthy’s 17 kills led three Trojans in double figures. Defensively, Shannon VanAntwerp led all players with a match-high 23 digs and Swilley added seven block assists.
