MOBILE, Ala. | South Alabama's Abryanna Cannon and Sarah Gooch each recorded 10 kills to lead a balanced offensive attack as the Jags picked up their first Sun Belt Conference win, defeating ULM, 3-1 (25-16, 16-25, 25-19, 25-20) Friday night at Jag Gym.

South Alabama (5-8, 1-2 SBC) snapped a three-match skid with the win, while the Warhawks fell to 4-11 and 0-3 in the league with the loss.

Cannon also ended the night with three block assists, five digs and an ace, while Gooch hit .375 in the win and added an ace of her own. Along with the duo, Maradith O'Gorman just missed double figures with nine kills, two aces, four block assists and five digs, while Lillie Simons had eight kills of her own, a .400 hitting percentage and a match-high eight block assists.

As a team, the Jags held an 11.0-3.0 advantage in total blocks. Freshman middle blocker Dalayla Blackwell recorded both of South's solo blocks.

ULM's Ariana Brown (14 kills) and Taly Cloyd (11 kills) paced the Warhawks offensively.

Quotable – head coach Jesse Ortiz
- On being back home for the first time in a month and starting the homestand off with a win: "It's great to be back in Jag Gym. The month away from this place was rough, and I thing that tonight we were all really excited to get back in here. Kudos to ULM, they definitely came after us. We're glad we were able to get the win at home."

- On the team bouncing back after the second-set loss: "You can't make as many errors as we did in the set. We've been really working on limiting our errors, but we really don't work on net errors. I think we had about five in that set. I believe we had 15 unforced errors and you can't do that to any opponent. That's going to be part of our continued growth. We have a lot of talent on this team, we're very physical, and there's a lot of skill on our roster, but putting that all together and being consistent remains a focus for us."

- On the key to tomorrow's match in order to complete the series sweep: "We just have to play clean. If we're able to do that, I feel we will put ourselves in a great position to come away with a 'W'.  ULM has some great physicality on their side of the net. I'm a really big fan of Ariana Brown. She's something else and her arm speed is real. She's a tremendous athlete, so we're going to have to make her do a lot of work, and then all of us are going to need to share the load in what we're doing."

Graduate senior middle blocker Lillie Simons
- On being back home for the first time in a month: "It feels great to be back home. We had a long September on the road. It's always nice to play in Jag Gym and be surrounded by Jag Nation; there's nothing better."

- On her performance: "There were some rocky moments for me, but I knew I just needed to do my job at the net and get the job done the best that I could."

How It Happened 
Set 1 – South Alabama 25, ULM 16
•    The Warhawks grabbed three of the first four points of the match to hold the early momentum, but South Alabama responded with a massive run over the next 13 points to take control of the opening set
•    The Jaguar defense ignited the 12-1 run, including eight unanswered at the start of the scoring spurt, as Simons combined with both Cannon and O'Gorman for a pair of blocks
•    Simons had three kills and three blocks during the run, while Cannon added two kills, a block and an ace, and O'Gorman two aces of her own and a block
•    Cannon's ace capped off the run and put South up 12-4
•    From there, South Alabama held control and eventually picked up the first-set victory, 25-16 after a kill by O'Gorman
•    Both Cannon and Simons had five kills apiece in the set and combined for six total blocks
•    As a team, USA had three aces and eight block assists, holding ULM to a .062 hitting percentage

Set 2 – ULM 25, South Alabama 16
•    Holding a one-point lead (6-5) early on in the second set, ULM reeled off four-straight points to open up a five-point lead (10-5) after back-to-back kills by Sydney Garrison and an Emily Adams ace
•    Later leading (12-8), the Warhawks extended their lead to nine (17-8) on the strength of a 5-0 run
•    ULM later built its biggest lead of the set at 11 (20-9) after a Hannah Redrow kill, one of her eight in the match
•    The Jags tried to mount a late charge, narrowing the deficit to eight, but the Warhawks held on for the 25-16 win to even the match
•    ULM posted a .375 hitting percentage in the set, recording 16 kills on 32 attacks and just four errors, and was led offensively by Garrison's seven kills

Set 3 – South Alabama 25, ULM 19
•    ULM led 4-3 early on, but over the next eight points, South Alabama grabbed the momentum by reeling off a 7-1 run
•    Cannon ignited the run with a kill and Gooch followed with back-to-back kills
•    ULM hung around and was able to cut the deficit to three on four occasions, the last coming at 20-17 after block assists by Madeline Villarreal and Morgan Howard
•    South Alabama didn't allow the Warhawks to get any closer though and pushed across three-straight points to take a 23-17 lead after an ace by Anna Loberg
•    Blackwell sealed the 25-19 victory with a solo block, her second of the set and third of the match
•    South's defense held ULM to a -.030 hitting percentage in the third frame

Set 4 – South Alabama 25, ULM 20
•    Riding the momentum from the third-set win, South Alabama came out on fire in the fourth frame capturing the first four points after kills by Cannon and Loberg and four block assists, two from Simons
•    The Jags led 8-4 after a kill by Gooch, but ULM pushed across seven of the next eight points, taking its first lead of the set after back-to-back kills by Brown
•    Tied at 15-all later in the set, the Jaguars took the lead for good when Gooch slammed home a kill
•    O'Gorman posted a kill of her own to put South Alabama at match point (24-18), and three points later, Cannon close things out with her 10th kill of the match (25-20)

Post-Match Notes
•    The meeting marked the 28th in the all-time series, as the Jags now lead the series 21-7, including a 12-0 mark at Jaguar Gym
•    Since 2007, South has won 20 of the last 22 series meetings, including a current 10-match win streak
•    The second-set victory by ULM was just its fifth set won in the 12 series matches played in Mobile
•    The Jags have won eight of their last 11 Sun Belt Conference home openers
•    Under Ortiz, South Alabama is a perfect 4-0 in SBC home openers, and also 7-0 under Ortiz in SBC home opening series
•    Over the last three-plus seasons, South has posted a 38-13 mark in Sun Belt play and has won 22 of its 24 league home matches
•    The win also marked the 70th of Ortiz's career at South Alabama
•    With her 10 kills, Cannon has posted double-digit kill nine times this fall and has led the club in kills on eight occasions, to go along with four double-doubles
•    Cannon surpassed the 400-kill mark at South and also the 750-kill mark for her career as she now has 407 and 752, respectively in those two categories
•    Entering Saturday's match, Simons (194) is six block assists shy of 200 for her career
•    The eight block assists also marked the 15th time in Simons' career that she has finished with five or more in a match, the 40th time with three or more, and the 24th time – eighth this season – that she has led the club in blocks
•    Over her last six matches, Simons has recorded 57 kills and 43 total blocks
•    The 10 kills by Gooch marked her third match this fall with 10 or more
•    O'Gorman has had eight or more kills in six of her last seven matches

Up Next
•    South Alabama will close out the series with the Warhawks on Saturday with first serve set for 1 p.m. at Jag Gym.

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