MOBILE, Ala. ? In their second match of the day, the South Alabama volleyball team dropped a 3-0 (21-30, 29-31, 25-30) decision Saturday afternoon in the final match of the 2007 Jaguar Classic at Jag Gym.

USA falls to 4-5 on the season and will now head to Lorman, Miss., to take on Alcorn State on Tuesday at 7 p.m.  With the win, McNeese State improves to 6-7 on the season. 

The Jags were led offensively by Brittany Blackwelder’s 11 kills on the afternoon.  The Jag middle blocker hit .611 in her 18 attempts, while Chanel Tyler paced the Cowgirls.  Deana Sanchez also finished with a match-high six aces against the Jags. 

For their efforts in the tournament, Kennesaw State’s Lindsey Plotner, Ann Mullins and Sarah Snyder from Lipscomb, Lindsey Petzold and Jessica Strama from McNeese State and Juliana Pallamin de Almeida and Blackwelder from South Alabama were all named to the all-tournament team following the match.

GAME ONE: McNeese State 30, South Alabama 21

In the opener, USA got off to a great start, jumping out to an early 5-1 lead.  Almeida capped off the Jag run with back-to-back kills.  After an Alyson Jones kill, however, the Cowgirls came back and tied the contest up at 8-8.  Sanchez kept things going for McNeese and gave the Cowgirls the lead for good with three consecutive aces.  Sarah Cartie gave McNeese State the 1-0 match lead when she put down a kill of her own to give MSU the five point victory.

GAME TWO: McNeese State 31, South Alabama 29

For the first half of the second contest of the match, both teams battled back-and-forth with neither able to take more than a two point lead on the other.  With the game tied at 15-all, McNeese State looked as if it was going to pull away, going on a 5-2 spurt to take a 20-15 lead.  The Cowgirls increased the Jag deficit to as much as six later in the match after a couple of Jaguar attack errors.  Trailing 27-24, South Alabama mounted its charge and knotted the game back up at 29-29 after a Hritina Markova kill and another MSU miscue.  McNeese State answered right back though and took the final two points to go up 2-0 in the match with the 31-29 win.

GAME THREE: McNeese State 30, 25

Game three was another tight affair for much of the game with neither team able to pull away from the other.  Taylor Irvin trimmed the deficit to 21-20 for USA with one of her six kills, but again the Cowgirls answered right back and closed the game and the match on a 9-5 run.  Sanchez has she had done for much of the match ended things with another service ace.