Box Score - South Alabama 3, Southeastern Louisiana 0

HAMMOND, La. – The University of South Alabama volleyball team picked up its first road victory Tuesday night as the Jags swept Southeastern Louisiana, 3-0 (25-22, 26-24, 25-19) at the University Center. 

“My challenge to the team tonight was to see if we could perform with same intensity against Southeastern Louisiana that we did when we played them at home two weeks ago,” South Alabama head coach Nicole Keshock said.  “I really felt that we were able to do so.  Even when Southeastern Louisiana was able to make runs at us, our team remained very calm.  One of the keys to our win was the play of our defense.  We were really disciplined and played well.”

USA (5-6) will now travel to Statesboro, Ga., to compete at the Springhill Inn & Suites Invitational this weekend.  The Jags will open up tournament action on Thursday when they take on Georgia Southern at 6 p.m. (CT).  With the loss, the Lions fall to 7-6 on the season.

Senior middle blocker Jaclyn Nickels led the charge offensively for the Jags in the win.  The Sarnia, Ontario native set a new career-high with eight kills, while also hitting .400.  Torlandria Jones and Olivia Mohler also turned in solid performances, chipping in with seven kills each.  Jones did not commit an error in her 15 attacks and posted a match-high .476 hitting percentage.

Defensively, fellow freshman Jenna Hassell led the way with a career-high 18 digs.  Jennica Hagberg (13) and Samia Salomao (10) also finished with double-digit dig tallies.

The Lions were paced by Allison Jones’ 15 kills and Taylor Buckner’s 12.

SET ONE: South Alabama 25, Southeastern Louisiana 22

South Alabama started the match with a quick 5-1 spurt to hold the early momentum.  The Jags run was aided by couple of bad Lion sets and attack errors to go along with a kill from USA’s Jones.  Southeastern Louisiana trimmed the Jag advantage to two (6-4) a few points later, but USA came right back and pushed across seven of the next nine points and grabbed 13-6 lead after a Hagberg ace, South Alabama’s second of the run.  The Jags later took their largest lead of the set at eight (18-10) after another Jones’ put away.

Courtney Donald, Jones and Buckner kept the Lions in the set, combining for all but one of f SELA’s 15 kills in the set. 

With USA sitting just one point away from taking the opening set at 24-19 after a Lea Thurm kill, Southeastern pushed across four-straight points to cut the Jaguar advantage to two.  Coming out of a South Alabama time out though, Nickels clinched the 25-22 victory with a kill of her own.

SET TWO: South Alabama 26, Southeastern Louisiana 24

Neither team able to gain more than a two-point lead on the other early in the second set.  With South Alabama trailing by one, the Jags were able to reel off six of the next seven points and grab a 15-11 lead.  The USA run was ignited by two more kills from Jones and a Thurm put away.  The Lions didn’t allow the Jags to stretch their lead out to any more than three points over the next several points and kept battling, eventually tying the frame up at 24-all after another kill from Jones.  On the next point though SELA committed an attack error and for the second-straight set, Nickels capped off the victory for the Jags with another kill.

SET THREE: South Alabama 25, Southeastern Louisiana 19

In the third and final set, South Alabama again jumped out to another early four-point lead, only to see Southeastern Louisiana fight back and tie things up at 8-8 on an ace from Alex Greer.  The Lions kept the momentum and after two more kills from Jones held their largest lead of the set at 15-12. 

From that point on though, the Jags quickly answered right back and closed strong, out-scoring Southeastern Louisiana 13-4 down the stretch to pick up the 25-19 third-set victory and capture the match.  The pivotal run was sparked by USA’s Salomao who slammed home a two kills and teamed up with Nickels to turn away a Lion attack.  Salomao and Jones later clinched the win for South Alabama when the duo combined to block another attack from SELA.  The four block assists by Jones tied a career-best for the freshman.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com.  Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).