NACOGDOCHES, Texas – South Alabama volleyball dropped a pair of matches to open the SFA Invitational Friday. The Jags fell in straight sets to Tulsa (25-20, 25-22, 25-23) to open the tournament, and lost to host SFA (25-20, 23-25, 20-25, 23-25) in four sets to close the first day of play.

UP NEXT
South Alabama (2-3) will face McNeese at 11 a.m. Saturday to close the SFA Invitational in Nacogdoches, Texas.

Tulsa 3, South Alabama 0
Set 1
- USA cut the Tulsa lead to 7-5 on a kill by Hannah Maddux, but the Golden Hurricane used a 7-0 scoring run to build a 14-5 advantage.
- The Jags went on a 5-0 run, highlighted by two kills apiece from Niki Capizzi and Maddie Soboleski, to cut the Tulsa lead to 17-15.
- Tulsa closed the set with a 3-0 run, earning set point at 24-20 on an attack error by Lillie Simons and clinching the set 25-20 on an attack error by Soboleski to take a 1-0 lead in the match.

Set 2
- Tulsa held a 4-1 lead before a 4-0 Jaguar run that featured kills by Capizzi and Soboleski gave USA a 5-4 advantage.
- A kill by Capizzi cut the Tulsa lead to 13-12, but a 3-0 Golden Hurricane run pushed the lead to 16-12. 
- Tulsa earned set point at 24-19 on a service ace by Brayden Hipp before a 3-0 Jaguar run, which featured a service ace by Soboleski, cut the Tulsa lead to 24-22. Tulsa then clinched the set 25-22 on a kill by Kayley Cassaday for a 2-0 lead in the match.

Set 3
- Tulsa held a 3-2 lead early in the set before a 4-0 Jaguar run that featured a kill and service ace by Soboleski doubled the USA lead at 6-3.
- USA took a 7-4 lead on a Tulsa attack error, but the Golden Hurricane responded with a 5-0 run to take a 9-7 lead.
- Consecutive kills by Capizzi and Soboleski tied the score 13-13 before Tulsa went on a 4-0 run, aided by a pair of Jaguar attack errors, to push its lead to 17-13.
- Tulsa earned match point at 24-19 on an attack error by Soboleski before a 4-0 Jaguar run, highlighted by kills from Soboleski and Emily Ready, and a service ace by Rachel Hickey, cut the Golden Hurricane lead to 24-23. Tulsa then clinched the set 25-23 on a kill by Cassaday to sweep the match 3-0.

NOTES
- The loss marked the first time South Alabama has been swept under head coach Jesse Ortiz, and the first since falling 3-0 to Texas State in the 2020 Sun Belt Conference Tournament in Foley, Ala.
- Keeble recorded her third double-double of the season and the 22nd of her career with 36 assists and 13 digs, along with two block-assists. Her double-double tied Holly Miller (2000-02) for sixth on the career double-doubles list at USA.
- Soboleski finished with a game-high 16 kills, and added two service aces and five digs.
- Hickey recorded a team-high 14 digs, along with two assists and one service ace.
- Capizzi totaled 10 kills and a .588 hitting percentage on 17 total attempts, and also added two block-assists.
- Tulsa recorded 13 team blocks versus the Jaguars' six total blocks.

SFA 3, USA 1
Set 1
- South Alabama faced a one-point deficit at 6-5 before going on an 8-0 run that featured a pair of kills by Hannah Maddux and two service aces by Capizzi for a 13-6 advantage.
- Consecutive kills by Soboleski and Capizzi later in the set opened up an 18-10 Jaguar lead.
- USA earned set point at 24-18 on a kill by Morgan Stalcup, and clinched the set 25-20 on an SFA service error to take a 1-0 lead in the match.

Set 2
- SFA held a 6-5 lead before a 4-0 Jag run, which included a pair of kills by Maddux, gave USA a 10-6 lead.
- Consecutive kills by Morgan Stalcup and Maddux started a 4-0 Jag run that was capped by a block-assist from Soboleski and Capizzi, which gave USA a 17-14 lead.
- A kill by Soboleski later in the set tied the score 23-23, but SFA earned set point at 24-23 on a kill by Camryn Hill and clinched the set 25-23 on a second straight kill by Hill to even the match at 1-1.

Set 3
- South Alabama took a 5-3 lead on an SFA attack error, but the Lumberjacks responded with a 5-0 run, aided by a pair of Jaguar attack errors, to take an 8-5 lead.
- A kill and service ace by Maddux later cut the SFA lead to 23-19; however, the Lumberjacks earned set point 24-19 on a service error by Maddux and clinched the set 25-20 on a kill by Hill for a 2-1 lead in the match.

Set 4
- The Jags faced a two-point deficit at 7-5 before going on a 3-0 run, which featured a kill by Stalcup and block-assist by Simons and Stalcup, to take an 8-7 lead.
- A kill by Soboleski gave USA an 11-9 advantage, but the Lumberjacks used a 3-0 run to take a 12-11 lead. 
- SFA held a 22-20 lead later in the set, but the Jags went on a 3-0 run, highlighted by a block-assist from Capizzi and Keeble and a kill by Soboleski, to take a 23-22 lead.
- SFA closed the set with a 3-0 run, earning set point at 24-23 on a kill by Ielan Bradley and clinching the set 25-23 on an attack error by Capizzi to clinch the match 3-1.

NOTES
- South Alabama recorded 17 total blocks in the match, which marked the most by a Jaguar team since posting 17 against Texas State on Sept. 22, 2017.
- Keeble finished posted her fourth double-double of the season with a season-high 48 assists and 16 digs in addition to one service ace and two block-assists.
- Soboleski recorded her second double-double of the year, finishing with a game-high 15 kills and 10 digs along with three block-assists.
- Stalcup finished with a career-high 14 kills and .609 hitting percentage, along with five block-assists.
- Maddux added 13 kills, one service ace, one block-assist and three digs, and Capizzi finished with 10 kills, two service aces, one solo block, three block-assists and five digs.

QUOTES
Head Coach Jesse Ortiz
- On the matches:
"I thought they both (Tulsa and SFA) were pretty good, and that's one of the reasons we wanted to be in this tournament. We wanted to go seek out some opponents that were going to be pretty good and formidable, and we had some pretty good battles against them. I thought Tulsa served tremendously well. They kept us at bay and when teams do that they'll be high error at times, but they weren't; they were hitting their marks and they took it to us on that so credit to them. And SFA in their home gym, it just felt like they were getting in rhythm as it went along. After the first set of us taking it to them, I felt like they worked to get more in rhythm as they kept going so credit to those guys as well."

- On his message to the team:
"I'm really proud of my group in terms of how hard they're playing, and there's no doubt about it that we're getting after it. It's not for a lack of effort; we're working to grind out wins, today just wasn't our day. But I just told them to keep their heads up, we have a lot more matches ahead of us. We don't win the season in one day or one weekend. You have to keep on grinding to get better. And we really want to be the best team that we can be at the end of the year as opposed to right now. These are the moral victories that you tell yourself and things that we know are true, but it doesn't mean they don't hurt any less. We're just trying to grind and be a little bit better each day, and that is them, me and the coaching staff and I'm very optimistic that we can do that for sure."

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