FOLEY, Ala. | After dropping the first two sets of the match, South Alabama rallied back to force a fifth set, but James Madison outlasted the Jaguars to pick up a 3-2 victory (25-21, 25-12, 21-25, 25-27, 21-19) Saturday evening in the semifinals at Sun Belt Conference Championship held at the Foley Event Center.

South Alabama finishes the 2025 season with a 15-14 overall record, while James Madison (22-8) now advances to the championship match to face Arkansas State on Sunday.

Cambria Gaier recorded her third double-double of the season with a team-high 20 kills and 10 digs, while Maradth O'Gorman came two blocks shy of a triple-double posting 12 kills, 11 digs and eight total blocks – one solo and seven assists. Redshirt-freshman outside hitter Eva Dittmar was the third Jag to end the night in double figures as she tied a career high with 14 kills.

Playing in her final match as a Jag, Anna Loberg posted her 16th career double-double with 43 assists, 17 digs, two aces and four block assists. 

Dalayla Blackwell finished with seven total blocks – one solo and six assists – while Alexa Strandberg added five – one solo and four assists.

Kennedy Louisell led JMU offensively with a match-high 24 kills, while Ayen Nhial recorded 12 kills and seven blocks – two solo and five assists. Three players for the Dukes recorded eight kills, including Anna Wilson, who also added a match-high eight blocks – three solo and five assists.

Quotable – head coach Jesse Ortiz
- On the team rallying back after dropping the first two sets: "I'm so proud of my team, proud of every girl on the team. They are fighters and you saw that in the match. We had our opportunities to win, but credit to JMU, they're a serious group. We just came up a little short. I can't be prouder to be the coach of this Jaguar volleyball team."

- On the seniors: "The tenacity and the leadership that this group showed. Having Anna (Loberg) for five years, and seeing her grinding and growing, and then having Bri (Wilson) for four years. I remember them coming into our program as high school kids. Bri with her big smile, and Anna just quiet, and just watching and observing everything. Just watching Emily (Ready), Rachel (Rossman) and Maradith (O'Gorman) compete. They are the next great group of players in a long line of great Jaguars. I'm so proud to have been their coach."  

How It Happened 
Set 1 – James Madison 25, South Alabama 21
•    KEY MOMENT: With South Alabama leading by six midway through the set, James Madison took control with a 13-2 run 
•    South Alabama picked up three of the first four points of the match, but James Madison answered back with five unanswered to take the lead (6-3) after an ace by Grace Wenrich
•    Dukes led 10-6 after a Jaguar attack error, but on the next point South would take advantage of a JMU serving error and reel off seven-straight points
•    Gaier hammered an ace to tie the set up during the run and Loberg then dumped in a kill to put the Jaguars up
•    After kill by Nhial temporarily stopped the Jaguar run, South Alabama pushed across four more points and took a six-point lead (17-11) as Dittmar bookended the 4-0 spurt with kills
•    JMU answered right back with a run of its own, this one a 7-1 over the next eight to retake the lead
•    Nhial ignited the run with three-straight kills, and Wilson later capped off the run and put the Dukes up, 19-18 with a kill
•    Coming out of a time out, South was able to tie the match up after a JMU attack error, but the Dukes pushed across the next five points as Louisell put them at set point (24-19) with a kill
•    South Alabama was able to fight off a pair of set-points on back-to-back kills by O'Gorman, but Louisell sealed the 25-21 win with her sixth kill of the frame

Set 2 – James Madison 25, South Alabama 12
•    KEY MOMENT: James Madison used a 9-0 run early in the set and never looked back
•    South Alabama took the opening point of the second set, but James Madison answered back with nine unanswered points to take control
•    The duo of Louisell and Julia McNeeley spurred the run, combining for eight on the nine JMU points 
•    Louisell recorded three kills and a block assists, and McNeeley added three aces
•    O'Gorman and Gaier ended the 9-0 run by the Dukes with a kill each, but James Madison pushed across four more points and took a double-digit lead (13-3) after a Wilson kill
•    James Madison held control from there and went on to take the set, 25-12 
•    Louisell – the Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year – posted six more kills in the set and hit .364
•    JMU outhit South Alabama .346 - -.037 in the frame

Set 3 – South Alabama 25, James Madison 21
•    KEY MOMENT: With JMU trying to rally back late in the set, Blackwell and Gaier turned back a Duke attack to seal the four-point set win
•    JMU led 4-3 early on in the third set, but South Alabama used a 7-0 run to take the lead
•    Gaier began the run with back-to-back kills, Strandberg added an ace and a solo block, and then after block assists by O'Gorman and Blackwell, Gaier capped things off and put South up 10-4 with another kill
•    Blackwell later put South Alabama up by eight (14-6) with another kill
•    The Dukes cut the Jaguar lead to 16-12, but O'Gorman and Strandberg helped South Alabama regain the momentum with a block
•    The block – one of the two by the Jag duo – ignited a 7-1 run for South Alabama, and the Jags lead 23-14 after kills by Gaier and Blackwell and a JMU attack error
•    James Madison responded with an 8-1 run, including five-straight points to begin things and trimmed the Jaguar lead to 24-21 after block assists by Nhial and Addie Norman
•    On the next point though, Blackwell and Gaier teamed up for a block of their own to seal the 25-21, set win
•    Gaier led the way offensively for the Jags in the third set with six kills

Set 4 – South Alabama 27, James Madison 25
•    KEY MOMENT: O'Gorman slammed home a kill to put South at set point and then recorded a block to seal the win in extra points
•    James Madison used its defense to break an early tie as it led 6-2 after solo blocks by Melisa Ilter and Wilson, and then block assists by the duo
•    Led by Gaier and O'Gorman, South Alabama managed to hang around over the next several points, twice cutting the deficit to two, the last at 14-12 after a kill by Gaier
•    The Dukes though responded with a 4-0 run with Nhial starting it with her 10th of the match, and Wilson giving JMU to 18-12 advantage
•    South Alabama would not go away as Blackwell led the charge
•    After a serving error by James Madison, the Lafayette, La., native recorded the next four points for the Jags with a pair of kills and then two block assists with Loberg
•    JMU was called for a lift on the next point to tie the set back up at 18-18 and cap off the 6-0 Jaguar run
•    With the Dukes leading 21-20, South Alabama pushed across three-straight, the last two coming on an ace by Loberg – her second of the match – and then a block assists by Strandberg and O'Gorman
•    The Dukes rattled off three-straight points and held match point (24-23) after back-to-back kills by Ana Toumasatos and a Jaguar attack error 
•    Dittmar slammed home a kill to send the set into extra points, and Briana Wilson then dropped in a kill of her own off a deflection to give South set point
•    With the set tied 25-25, O'Gorman recorded a kill to put South at set point (26-25), and the senior then teamed up with Blackwell on the next point to send the match to a fifth set

Set 5 – James Madison 21, South Alabama 19
•    KEY MOMENT: James Madison was able to push across the final two points of the match and take the fifth set
•    South held the early momentum, jumping out to a 6-2 lead as O'Gorman had a kill and a solo block
•    Louisell ignited a 5-1 JMU run, and after she teamed up for a block assists, Wilson tied the set up at 7-7 with a solo block
•    James Madison took the lead at 9-8 three points later, and set one point away from taking the set (14-11) after a kill by Toumazatos, but South Alabama fought off three-straight match points
•    The Jaguars rattled off the next four points, three coming from Gaier off kills to put South at match point (15-14), but JMU evened it on the next point with a block by Nhial and Ilter
•    South Alabama had two more match-point opportunities, but the Dukes were able to even the set both times
•    The Jaguars also fought off another match point and tied the set at 19-19, but Louisell posted a kill and Nhial then blocked a Jaguar attack to end the match, giving the Dukes the 21-19 set win

Post-Match Notes
•    The match marked the final in a Jaguar uniform for five South Alabama seniors: Loberg, Wilson, O'Gorman, Rachel Rossman and Emily Ready
•    Gaier ends her freshman season, leading the club with 57 sets of four or more kills, including 15 with six or more, and has done so in 43 of her 66 sets against league foes
•    The 16-career double-doubles for Loberg 16 move her into a tie for 15th with former Jags Allison Dickenson (1999) and Tonia Hatfield (1993-95) in the career category at South
•    Loberg (2,054) also ends her Jaguar career ranked seventh in career assists at South Alabama, and fourth in the category in the rally-scoring error (since 2001)
•    With her 12 kills, O'Gorman ends her collegiate career with 703, and with her eight blocks, she finishes at 261
•    Wilson ends her Jaguar career with 1,141 career digs after posting 17 in her final match in a Jaguar uniform

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