BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ? The University of South Alabama women’s volleyball team captured a 3-1 (23-30, 30-24, 30-26, 30-28) victory Friday night at the Loco’s Invitational hosted by the Panthers at Bill Battle Coliseum.
USA (5-5) will return to action Saturday when the Jags take on Central Michigan at 10 a.m. and then face Nicholls State at 5 p.m. CMU defeated NSU 3-0 in the opening match of the tournament on Friday.
“I thought Birmingham Southern (2-8) played really well tonight and played us really tough,” said South Alabama women’s volleyball head coach Nicole Keshock. “I thought that we were consistent tonight. We didn’t have a lot of highs and lows even when Birmingham Southern would go on a run. I felt like we were going to chip away and come back. We tried a lot of different things tonight and I thought Jennifer Johnson came in and did a good job.”
In the opener of the match, both clubs came out with neither able to grab more than a two point advantage early on. With the game tied 10-10, BSC pushed across three-straight points. The Jags were able to cut the deficit to one four times until USA tied the contest back up at 19-19 after a block assist from Jenna Swilley and Brittany Blackwelder. The Panthers took the lead for good when they answered back with five unanswered points to push the BSC lead back out to five (24-19). Casey Demos gave Birmingham Southern the 30-23 victory and the 1-0 match lead when she dropped in her fourth kill of the game into the back right corner.
The second contest saw the Lady Jags jump out to a quick 4-1 advantage after Kalyn Hundley and Blackwelder combined for another block assist. BSC kept battling back and grabbed its first lead of game two on a Sarah Harris put away. The lead was short-lived though, as the Jag defense once again stood tall and USA reclaimed the lead (9-8) after another block assist, this one coming from Summer Pilgrim and Blackwelder. Michelle Maciejewski knotted the game back up at 12-12 with a kill of her own, but South Alabama again went on another 4-1 spurt to take a 16-13 lead. Over much of the remainder of the game, the Jags pushed the lead out to three on a couple of occasions only to see the Panthers rally and tie the contest back up. With the second game all square at 23-23, USA ended the game on a 7-1 run that was capped off by a Lauren Robbins kill. The kill from Robbins, playing in her first match back, gave USA a 30-24 victory and evened the match a 1-1.
With the match even at one game apiece, the host Panthers took the first three points of game three, but the Lady Jags responded right back with the next five to take a 5-3 game lead. Back-to-back attack errors from USA, however, later let BSC tie the contest back up at 8-8. The Jags did not let the Panthers take the lead though and after a Stephanie Cutter ace and BSC attack error, South Alabama held a 15-10 advantage. The Jag women held its largest lead of the game at 24-16 after back-to-back Panther errors, but Birmingham Southern had one more rally attempt. The Panthers reeled off five straight points to cut the deficit to 24-21 on a Demos kill. That was as close as the host would get the rest of the way as USA went on to take game three 30-26 and a 2-1 match lead. Robbins led the way for the Jags in the game recording six of her 13 kills on the night.
In game four, it was the Jags that got down early and would have to rally. Birmingham Southern got out to a quick 4-1 lead early on. Trailing 11-7, South Alabama knotted the game back up at 11-11 after a Katie Wilhelm ace. BSC answered right back with a run of its own, taking five of the next six points to hold a 16-12 advantage. The Jags again tied the contest up at 18-all after a Blackwelder solo block only to see the Panthers again stretched their lead back out to 25-23. USA again rallied and tied the contest up at 25-25 on a Jennifer Johnson service ace, the first of her career. With the finale tied at 26-26, the Jags took the lead for good after back-to-back Panther attack errors and went on to hold on for the 30-28 victory.
South Alabama placed three players in double figures offensively on the night led by Blackwelder’s match-high 19. Swilley and Robbins also finished in double figures with 14 and 13 kills, respectively. Swilley also recorded 11 digs on the night for her first double-double of the season. On the defensive side of the ball, Shannon VanAntwerp recorded a match-high 25 digs. Maciejewski led the Panthers on the night with a double-double of her own, recording 16 kills and 20 digs.
Blackwelder’s 19 kills tied a career-high and VanAntwerp’s 25 digs also set a new career-high in that category.
