Box Score (PDF)

MOBILE, Ala. – The University of South Alabama volleyball team defeated Troy in five sets (21-25, 19-25, 25-21, 25-18, 15-10) Friday in a Sun Belt Conference match at Jag Gym.

USA (1-5, 1-1 SBC) dropped the first two sets to Troy (4-1, 4-1 SBC) before rallying to take the next three and earn its first win of the season. Freshman Rebecca Walk recorded career highs in kills (21), hitting percentage (.500) and total blocks (5), and senior Hannah Harris posted her first double-double of the season.

South Alabama will return to action Fri., Oct. 9, when it travels to Boone, North Carolina, for a 10 a.m. Sun Belt Conference match against Appalachian State.

GAME FACTS
- A Trojan service error cut the Jaguar deficit to 5-4 early in set one, but Troy went on a 3-0 scoring run to double its lead at 8-4. USA went on a 3-0 run, highlighted by a pair of kills by Hannah Harris, to cut the Troy lead to 10-9. Consecutive kills from Rebecca Walk and Carly Doros tied the score at 12-12. Troy used back-to-back blocks to take a 14-12 lead, but the Jags went on a 3-0 run, aided by a trio of Trojan attack errors, for a 15-14 advantage. USA held a 16-15 lead before Troy used a 4-0 run to take a 19-16 lead. The Trojans later earned set point at 24-19 on a kill by Avery Cason, and clinched the set 25-21 on a kill by Halston Hillier for a 1-0 lead in the match.
- With the score knotted 3-3 early in set two, USA went on a 3-0 run, highlighted by a block-assist by Doros and Hannah Johnson and service ace by Juanita Monteiro-Pai, to double its lead to 6-3. Troy answered with a 3-0 run to tie the score 6-6. A kill by Johnson cut the Troy lead to 17-16, but a 4-0 Troy run pushed the Trojan lead to 21-16. Troy earned set point at 24-19 on a kill by Cason, and clinched the set 25-19 on a Jaguar attack error to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
- The Jags opened set three with a 4-0 run that featured a kill by Walk, service ace by Maddie Soboleski and solo block by Harris. A Jaguar service error cut the Troy deficit to 10-8, but a kill by Harris and block-assist by Johnson and Walk extended the South Alabama lead to 12-8. Troy later tied the score 17-17 on a kill by Julia Brooks, but a kill by Johnson and block-assist from Johnson and Soboleski gave the Jaguars a 19-17 advantage. A Jaguar attack error tied the score at 21-21, but consecutive Troy service errors and attack errors gave USA a 23-21 lead. South Alabama earned set point at 24-21 on a block-assist by Doros and Walk, and clinched the set 25-21 on a kill by Maddux to cut the Troy lead to 2-1 in the match.
- Troy held a 3-1 lead early in set four, but an 11-0 Jaguar run that featured a pair of kills by Walk, one kill each by Harris and Doros, service ace by Harris and solo block by Walk, pushed the USA advantage to 12-3. A 3-0 Trojan run cut the USA lead to 13-7 before a Troy service error doubled the Jaguar lead to 14-7. A kill by Hillier cut the Troy deficit to 19-14, but a kill by Maddux at attack error by Troy's Brooks extended the Jag lead to 21-14. USA earned set point at 24-16 on an attack error by Troy's Cheyenne Hayes, and clinched the set 25-18 on a kill by Harris to tie the match 2-2. 
- USA opened the fifth set with a service ace by Soboleski, and a kill by Walk. Troy tied the score 3-3, but consecutive kills by Walk and Harris gave the Jags a 5-3 advantage. A kill by Johnson pushed the Jag lead to 7-4. Consecutive Troy points cut the Jag lead to 8-7, but a solo block by Johnson and kill by Walk gave USA a 10-7 advantage. Consecutive Trojan attack errors pushed the Jag lead to 13-9. South Alabama earned match point at 14-10 on a kill by Doros, and clinched the match 15-10 on a Trojan bad set.  

NOTES
- Walk finished with career highs in kills (21), hitting percentage (.500) and total blocks (5), and also added four digs and one assist. Her 21 kills are the most by a Jaguar since Harris' 21 against UT-Arlington last season in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament.
- Harris recorded her first double-double of the season, finishing with 11 kills and 10 digs, while also adding two assists, one service ace and three total blocks. 
- Johnson finished with a career-high eight total blocks, one solo and seven block-assists, and added five kills and one dig.
- Rachel Hickey led the Jags with 22 digs, and also recorded five assists.
- Soboleski posted a team-best 40 assists, along with three kills, four service aces, nine digs and two total blocks.
- Maddux recorded 10 kills, eight digs and five total blocks.
- South Alabama finished with a season-best 14 total team blocks, while Troy posted nine team blocks.

QUOTES
Head Coach Alexis Meeks-Rydell
- On the win:
"After set two, even though we were down 0-2, I looked at (assistant coaches) Rob (Chilcoat) and Pati (Gandolfo) and said, 'Regardless of what happens, it is already a win in my book because I feel like we are playing better than we did yesterday.' Maddie (Soboleski) was setting better than I have seen her set, and our serve receive was pretty good. We struggled with our blocking a little bit, but I still felt like as a whole with the things we needed to fix from yesterday, we were doing that but just weren't putting all the pieces together. I actually was never stressed at any point tonight. I think they felt that same way too, and that's why it carried over into sets three, four and five. We just played so well together tonight, and that's what we've been missing. I said yesterday that the first win was going to be the hardest, and we needed to get that to show them that we are getting better every time we step on the court. We had to do it the hard way, but that's ok. I'm just super proud of them for staying in it."

- On Rebecca Walk's performance:
"Absolutely unbelievable. I could tell she was in the zone during warmups, and I actually went up to Maddie (Soboleski) and said, 'Becca's here.' Right out of the gate, the first ball Maddie had an opportunity to set she gave it to 'Becca and she got a kill. We had talked as an offensive group about establishing our middles a little more, because I didn't feel like we did a good job of that yesterday. We needed to get the middles going early so that it would free up our outsides as well. That was the plan, and it worked. And then she just ran with it. I am super proud of her. We've been working on a lot of things with her and all of the freshmen in practice. These young student-athletes have potential, and I think that showed tonight. It's been cool to see them just play together. They're finding out who they are and jelling, and that's what we've been missing – just figuring out who we are as a program."

- On where the program stands after this week:
"I told them in the locker room how proud we are of them and how huge this was tonight, but the biggest reason we got here is because every day we have been improving. This isn't a stopping or stand-still point; practice on Monday has to be better than how we played tonight. And that has to continue down the line. We have had a main focus every week on something very specific, and what our focus was last week is the reason why we won today. We have things that we need to work on after seeing the matches this weekend, so that will be the focus going into this week. But this is just what we needed from a confidence standpoint for them to understand that they're hard work is paying off. They want to know and see that result sometimes to know that it is worth it, so as long as we continue to work hard next week and keep getting better every day – this was a good start for us as we now start to roll into playing somebody in conference every weekend."

UP NEXT
South Alabama will return to action Fri., Oct. 9, when it travels to Boone, North Carolina, for a 10 a.m. Sun Belt Conference match against Appalachian State.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with USAJaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at Twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

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