TALLAHASSEE, Fla. ? The South Alabama women’s volleyball team fell 3-0 (30-18, 30-17, 30-13) to Florida State Saturday morning at the FSU Invitational held at Lucy Memorial Court at Tully Gym.

South Alabama (2-2) will close out tournament play when it takes on Stetson later this afternoon at 4:30 p.m. (ET).

In the opening game of the match, Florida State (4-0) quickly took eight of the first nine points to take the advantage early on.  After Stephanie Cutter dumped in a kill of her own to cut the Jag deficit to five (9-4), the Seminoles again went on a run, this time a 10-2 run that gave FSU a 19-6 lead.  Malorie Wessel led the Nole charge, recording three kills during the scoring stretch.  USA was able to cut the deficit to 10 (20-10) after a block assists from Kalyn Hundley and Summer Pilgrim, but that was as close as the Lady Jags got the rest of the opening match.  FSU held its biggest lead of the match at 27-11 after a solo block from Brianna Barry.  The Seminoles went on to take the opener 30-18 and held a 1-0 match lead.

South Alabama came out in the second game and kept it close early, not allowing Florida State to get more than a three point lead.  After a Nole attack error cut the margin to 9-8, FSU went on a 9-2 scoring spurt to stretch the lead out nine (18-9).  USA kept battling and eventually trimmed the lead to 22-16 after a Jenna Swilley put away, but Florida State, led by Wessel, reeled off eight of the next nine points to take the game 30-17 and go up 2-0 in the match.  During the Seminole run, Wessel recorded five of her six game two kills, including the final point that landed just inside the back line.

The Seminoles opened the third game with a 9-0 run that was capped off by a Nikki Barber ace.  Hundley ended the FSU run with a kill and after a Taylor Irvin ace, the Jags cut the deficit to 11-6.  After a Seminole time out, Florida State responded with an 8-1 run to push the lead back out to 12 (19-7).  South Alabama was unable to get any closer as FSU went on to take the game and the match with the 30-13 victory.

Florida State was led offensively by Wessel and Zrinka Tomic, who finished with 13 and 11 kills, respectively.  USA was paced by Irvin’s team-high four kills and eight digs.

The key stat of the match was in the hitting percentage category, where FSU finished the contest hitting .412 compared to USA’s -.014.