TROY, Ala. | Sarah Gooch was one of four players to record double figures in kills Friday night as the sophomore posted a career-best 17 to lead the club, but Troy was able to rally back from a 2-0 deficit to defeat South Alabama 3-2 (23-25, 22-25, 26-24, 25-20, 15-12) at Trojan Arena.

South Alabama (4-8, 0-2 SBC) held a pair of match points in the third set, but Troy (7-5, 2-0 SBC) rallied back to extend the match and took the final two sets to complete the series sweep.

In addition to her 17 kills, Gooch also added five digs and three block assists. Abryanna Cannon recorded her fourth double-double of the season (12 kills, 10 digs) and had five blocks in the loss. Lillie Simons recorded her first career double-double with 11 kills and 10 block assists, and had a ,360 hitting percentage. Maradith O'Gorman also had 10 kills, while Dalayla Blackwell had five kills of her own and five total blocks.

Junior setter Anna Loberg just missed her third double-double of the fall with a career-high 46 assists and nine digs, while adding three kills and four block assists. Briana Wilson led the team with 16 digs.

Tori Hester led Troy with a match-high 30 kills and a .367 hitting percentage, and posted a double-double of her own with 13 digs. Of her 30 kills, 23 came over the final three sets, including 10 in the fourth set to even the match.

Amiah Butler also had a double-double (18 kills, 14 digs), along with two aces and seven total blocks – one solo and six assists. Kalina Calvillo also ended the night in double digits with 12 kills.

Quotable – head coach Jesse Ortiz
- On the match: "I thought we played much better and much cleaner tonight. I thought we were pretty aggressive in our play and distributed the ball a lot. I felt we became a little more tentative as the match went on. We just need to make sure that we stay aggressive and work to close out the match. 

"I do think that tonight was some of the best ball that we've played this season, and for all intents and purposes, we probably should have won the match, but kudos to Troy. They played us hard at home and we will have to work to get better starting with our next matches next weekend."

- On the play of Sarah Gooch: "Sarah was great tonight and the decision making was good. As we're growing and recognizing our situations, and whether or not we're going to pull the trigger comes more into play, it's nice to see that starting to come around. Again, we played some of our best ball tonight, and I wish we could have rewarded them with a win, but there are no easy matches in the Sun Belt."

How It Happened 
Set 1 – South Alabama 25, Troy 23
•    South Alabama came out on fire in the opening set, beginning the match with a 7-1 run
•    O'Gorman had three kills and Erika Spankus and Wilson each with a service ace, and coming out of a Trojan time out, Simons continued the run with a kill of her own
•    Butler and Aubrey Worthington led Troy's rally attempt as Butler had three kills and a block, and Worthington had a kill and a block during
•    The duo narrowed the Jaguar lead to one (11-10) when they teamed up for a block
•    Blackwell and O'Gorman then posted back-to-back kills to extend the lead back out to four (15-11)
•    South Alabama was unable to pull away over the next several points and Troy battled back, eventually tying the set back up (21-21) after Butler teamed up with Worthington and Ella Broadhead for back-to-back blocks
•    Still tied four points later at 23-23, Simons and Gooch slammed home two straight kills to give the Jags the early match lead
•    South Alabama hit .429 in the opening set and used a balanced attack as O'Gorman had seven kills, while Gooch had five and Simons had four in the opening frame
•    Butler had eight kills in the first set to lead Troy offensively

Set 2 – South Alabama 25, Troy 22
•    The second set was tight throughout with the Jags leading only by two through the first half of the set and the two clubs tying eight times
•    South led 14-13 after a kill by Gooch, but Troy pushed across the next three points to take its first lead after block assists by Broadhead and Janelle Stuempfig
•    With Troy leading 17-15, it was the Jags who answered back with four-straight unanswered points as Gooch began the run with a kill and after a pair of Trojan attack errors, South reclaimed the lead (18-17)
•    The four-point run was part of a 7-1 run over the next eight points, as Cannon had a kill and then the Jags posted back-to-back blocks to cap off the run and put South up 22-18
•    Troy was able to cut the Jaguar lead to one a couple of times, the last coming at 23-22 after a kill by Calvillo, but Cannon – who had four kills in the set – gave South set point and the Jaguars then took the 25-22 win after an attack by Calvillo was long
•    South Alabama's front line defense was outstanding in the second set, posting 10 block assists, and held Troy to a .000 hitting percentage

Set 3 – Troy 26, South Alabama 24
•    Like much of the match, neither team was able to pull away through the first half of the third set
•    Tied 10-10, South was the first team to gain more than a two-point lead as it rattled off five unanswered points
•    Cannon and Simons began the run with a kill each, and the duo then teamed up for two straight blocks
•    O'Gorman capped off the run and gave South the 15-10 lead with her second ace of the match
•    Gooch later recorded her 12th and 13th kills of the match to give the Jaguars a six-point lead (19-13)
•    South Alabama led by five (20-15) following another kill by Gooch, but Troy pulled within two three points later after a kill by Tori Hester and a pair of Jaguar attack errors
•    The Trojans kept chipping away and eventually tied the set back up, but South reclaimed the lead and held match point (24-22)
•    Butler though recorded a kill and Sara Bates dropped in an ace to tie the set back up at 24-24
•    Butler then teamed up with Broadhead for a block and Butler then forced a fourth set with a kill, giving the home team the 26-24 win

Set 4 – Troy 25, South Alabama 20
•    Tied at 2-2 after an ace by Wilson, Hester ignited a 6-0 run for the Trojans as she had three kills during the run
•    From there, Troy maintained the momentum for the next several points, extending its lead out to as much as eight
•    Trailing 20-12 after a kill by Hester – one of her 10 in the set – the Jaguars began to attempt to rally back
•    South Alabama pushed across eight of the next 10 points and pulled within two (22-20) after a kill by Gooch, her 15th of the match
•    Coming out of a Trojan time out though, Troy rattled off the final three points of the fourth set with another kill by Hester, an ace by Butler and then a kill by Broadhead, evening the match with the 25-20 win

Set 5 – Troy 15, South Alabama 12
•    Like much of the match, the two clubs went back and forth In the fifth and final set
•    South Alabama led 11-8 after a kill by Cannon, blocks by Simons and Loberg, and then a kill by the Jag setter
•    However, Troy quickly regained control and closed out the match by taking seven of the final eight points, three including the final point coming off kills by Hester
•    Hester hit .600 in the frame and led the Trojans with seven kills

Post-Match Notes
•    The meeting marked the 88th in the all-time series
•    Troy has now won seven of the last 11 series meetings, and five of the last six at Trojan Arena
•    Cannon (397) is three kills shy of reaching 400 at South Alabama, and (190) 10 total blocs shy of 200 for her career
•    Loberg (301) surpassed the 300-dig mark for her career
•    The 10 block assists by Simons marked both career highs in block assists and total blocks
•    The last time a Jaguar finished with 10 or more total blocks in a season was Niki Capizzi, vs. Troy (10/28/23) | (10.0, 2-8—10)
•    The last time a Jag had 10 block assists in a match was (10) Sarah Richardson, at Southern Miss (9/29/15)
•    The 28 block assists by South Alabama were tied for fifth-most in a match in program history and the most since recording 30 vs. Texas State in a five-setter (10/22/22)
•    South finished just one dig shy of having three players record a double-double, which would have been the first time a trio had done so since vs. UT Arlington (11/22/19); Hannah Harris (21 kills, 11 digs), Meaghan Jones (18 kills, 13 digs), Rachel DeMarcus (49 assists, 11 digs)
•    The seven kills by O'Gorman in the first set marked the most by a Jag in a set this season
•    The double-double for Cannon was 
•    She has now finished with 10 or more kills eight times this fall, 20 times at South Alabama and 36 times during her collegiate career 
•    South Alabama lost for the first time since vs. Valparaiso (9/4/21) when leading 2-0 in a match

Up Next
•    South Alabama will return home for its first match at Jag Gym in over a month when they face ULM in a two-match series beginning Friday at 6 p.m.

FOLLOW THE JAGS
For complete coverage of South Alabama Volleyball, follow the Jags on social media @SouthAlabamaVB (Twitter), /SouthAlabama (Facebook), @southalabamavb (Instagram) or visit the official home of South Alabama athletics at USAJaguars.com.