HATTIESBURG, Miss. | South Alabama picked up its third-straight Sun Belt Conference series sweep Friday night with a 3-1 (25-18, 25-21, 14-25, 25-14) victory over Southern Miss at the Southern Miss Wellness Center.

With the win, the Jaguars (10-8, 6-2 SBC) also extended their season-best six-match win streak, while also now having won nine of their last 12. South Alabama also remains in second place in the SBC West Division just behind division leader Arkansas State.

For the second-straight match, Sarah Gooch paced the club offensively with 14 kills to go along with five digs and an outstanding .452 hitting percentage. The Apopka, Fla., native had her 14 kills on 31 attacks and didn't commit an attack error.

Abryanna Cannon and Lillie Simons each had 10 kills, while the latter hit a team-best .474 (10-1-19) and led the club with seven block assists. As a team, the Jaguars held a 13.0-3.0 advantage at the net defensively, a night after Southern Miss (8-12, 4-4 SBC) had 13.0 total blocks.

Maradith O'Gorman and Dalayla Blackwell also chipped in with nine and eight kills, respectively. South Alabama setter Anna Loberg recorded her third-straight double-double with 43 assists and 13 digs, while also adding five block assists.

The Golden Eagles were paced offensively by Aysu Dalogullari and Sadie McCada, who each had 14 kills, while McCada also had 12 digs.

Quotable – head coach Jesse Ortiz
- On the way the team is playing currently: "I like the grind and the work that we are putting in right now. Everyone wants to win in three sets, but I do like the fact that we are getting tested, and our players are answering. When you fight through adversity, you get stronger. I do feel that we have some people on a tear right now for us, especially Sarah (Gooch). She had two great matches this weekend and it's the way she's been playing lately. She's being very smart about what she's doing shot-selection wise and doing those with power. Watching her progression over the season has been great. She was high-error early on, but now she's an efficient player, and it's pretty sweet. A lot of our players showcased good stuff out there tonight. In some aspects, I thought we played cleaner and more in tune with Southern Miss tonight than we did yesterday. I'm really pleased with how we are playing right now."

- On the defense at the net tonight, especially in the late run in the fourth set: "Once we saw that the ball was as tight as it was to the net, we started taking it out. We were able to get our hands on a lot of them. Part of what I think is going to make us successful or not, is going to be how hard we play defense and how crisp we can be turning that defense into transition offense. Defense is something we really hang our hats on and something that is really important to us."

How It Happened 
Set 1 – South Alabama 25, Southern Miss 17
•    Quick start by Jags in the opening set as they grabbed eight of the first 11 points to take a five-point lead
•    Loberg and Simons combined for the block to give South the five-point advantage
•    USM cut the Jag lead to 10-8 after a Frankie Panunzio kill, but South Alabama quickly stretched the margin back out to five
•    Southern Miss again narrowed the Jag lead to two (15-13), but that was as close as the Golden Eagles got the rest of the way 
•    Cannon dropped in an ace to put South up 19-14, and from there the Jaguars would close strong, picking up six of the final nine points, including the last four
•    O'Gorman slammed home a kill and then had a solo block, Cannon put the Jags at set point with a kill and Sarah Gooch registered an ace to seal the 25-17 win
•    The Jaguars recorded four of their seven aces in the opening set
•    South Alabama was on fire in its attack in the opening set, hitting .393 with 13 kills on 28 attacks and just two errors

Set 2 – South Alabama 25, Southern Miss 21
•    South led by three (7-4) early on in the second frame, but the Golden Eagles tied the set back up at 8-8 after back-to-back kills by Dalogullari
•    Tied 10-10, the Jaguars pushed across five-straight points, which were part of a 9-2 run
•    Loberg and Simons ignited the run with a block, and after a USM attack error, Simons, Gooch and Loberg followed with a kill
•    Blackwell later capped off the Jaguar run and gave the visitors a seven-point advantage (19-12), after a solo block, her second of the run
•    Southern Miss chipped away at the Jaguar lead, getting as close as three on a couple of occasions, the last coming at 24-21 after a kill by Madison Baldridge, but Blackwell dropped in her sixth kill of the match to give the Jags the 25-21 win
•    South Alabama was solid offensively in the second set, hitting .311, and was led by the duo of Blackwell and Gooch who had four kills

Set 3 – Southern Miss 25, South Alabama 14
•    Southern Miss picked up the first two points of the third set – its first lead of the match
•    Jags battled back and took 7-6 lead after a kill by Gooch and an ace from Simons, but the Golden Eagle regained momentum with a run of four-straight points
•    McCada led the mini-run with a pair of kills and a block assist for USM
•    South trimmed the deficit to 11-9 after a kill from Gooch, but Southern Miss reeled off five-straight points to take its largest lead of the match
•    Sunni Shepard's second ace of the run put the Golden Eagles up 16-9
•    The Golden Eagles later extended their lead to double digits (22-12) after a kill by Panunzio, and finished off the third-set win (25-14) after kills by McCada and Dallogullari
•    After being held in check offensively for much of the match, Southern Miss posted its best offensive output, hitting .484 with 18 kills on 31 attacks 

Set 4 – South Alabama 25, Southern Miss 14
•    The fourth set was tight early on with the two clubs recording nine ties
•    Southern Miss led 10-9 after a Jaguar attack error, but over the next nine points South Alabama erupted on an 8-1 run to take control 
•    Blackwell began the run with a kill and Cannon then capped off the scoring with a kill of her own to put South up by five (16-11)
•    Southern Miss also committed four attack errors during the run
•    The Jags then put the match away as they closed on 13-3 run
•    Loberg and Simons recorded three block assists, and each had a kill during the pivotal run for the Jaguars
•    Gooch clinched the match and gave South the 25-14 fourth-set victory as she slammed home her 14th kill of the night
•    The South Alabama defense was outstanding in the final frame, holding Southern Miss to a -.094 hitting percentage after forcing nine attack errors and posting 10 block assists, five of which were recorded by Simons

Post-Match Notes
•    The meeting marked the 57th in the all-time series, and the Jaguars now hold a 36-21 series advantage in those meetings and evened its series record in Hattiesburg
•    Since USM joined the Sun Belt Conference, South has won five of the six meetings, and 12 of the last 15 sets against the Golden Eagles
•    Since the 2012 season the Jaguars have also won 11 of the last 13 series meetings
•    With her two solo blocks, Cannon (101) eclipsed the 200-block mark for her career
•    Cannon has double-digit kill tallies in 13 of her 18 matches, including eight of her last nine
•    Cannon has also had nine or more digs in nine of her last 11 matches, and recorded a double-double in her last three, giving her a team-best seven for the season
•    Over her last 11 matches, Simons has recorded 96 kills and 64 total blocks, recording eight or more kills in all but two of those matches
•    The middle hitter duo of Blackwell and Simons have combined for 150 kills and 92 blocks over that same stretch
•    Blackwell has had five or more kills in six of her last seven
•    Gooch has recorded nine or more kills in 10 of her last 12 matches, including each of her last seven, and five in double figures over the 12-match stretch
•    O'Gorman has recorded eight or more kills in 11 of her last 12 outings
•    O'Gorman has had three or more blocks in eight of her last nine matches, including seven straight, and totaled 30 total blocks over that stretch
•    Loberg has had 40-plus assists in four straight matches 
•    Loberg has had at least one service ace in six of her last seven, recording nine over that stretch
•    Simons now has 250 total blocks, and with her seven block assists, she moved passed former Jag Keturah Carter (217, 1978-90) for 10th at South in the category as she has 218
•    Wilson has recorded 13 or more digs in 11-straight matches
•    O'Gorman has also had four matches of two service aces over her last seven
•    South Alabama has recorded double-digit block totals in each of its last four and six of its last seven

Up Next
•    South Alabama will return home to host Louisiana in a two-match Sun Belt Conference series at Jag Gym. The Jags will open the series on Thursday at 6 p.m. and then face the Ragin' Cajuns on Friday at 6 p.m.

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