MOBILE, Ala. – Led by Megan Smith and Cambria Gaier, the Red Team picked up the final two sets and rallied back to capture the 2-1 victory in South Alabama's annual Red vs. Blue Match Friday night at Jag Gym.

Smith and Gaier each had nine kills to led the Red Team offensively, while Sarah Gooch and Dalayla Blackwell had eight for the Blue Team. 

SET ONE: Blue 25, Red 20
The Blue Team led for much of the first set and grew its lead to as much as seven. The Red Team tried to claw its way back, but Team Blue clinched the 25-20 first-set win after a service error. Gooch led the way with four kills, while Bri Wilson had 10 digs in the defensive back court for the Blue Team.

SET TWO: Red 25, Blue 13
After dropping the opening set, the Red Team grabbed control early of set two, capturing seven of the first eight points. Smith – who had three kills and a solo block – capped off the early run with a kill to give Red a 7-1 advantage. Gaier later put the Red squad up by double digits after three-straight kills and ignited a run of six unanswered points to give Red the 25-13 set-win and even the match.

SET THREE: Red 26, Blue 24
Trailing by one (4-3) early, the Blue Team rattled off seven of the next eight points to grab control. Blackwell was responsible for four of the points during the run as she had a pair of kills and a pair of block assists. Blue narrowed the deficit to three (14-11) after back-to-back aces by Marissa Taix. The Blue team latter held match point at 24-20, but the Red squad was able to push across the next six points and complete the comeback. Maradith O'Gorman ignited the run with a kill and with the set tied, Addison Hurst dropped in an ace and Smith and Alexa Strandberg teamed up to turn back an attack to seal the win (26-24).

Quotable – head coach Jesse Ortiz
- On his thoughts on the match: "I thought our group played hard. I liked the play of the defense in general. I felt everyone was getting acclimated to that part of the game pretty well. Usually with us at the beginning of the year, that's one of the things I look at. I think we have a lot of physicality and we have a long way to go with some of the high errors we had, but that's the reason we have these types of matches, so we can work those things out. All-in-all, I thought they played pretty well. People are fighting for jobs, so it's an awesome thing to watch them compete."

- On where he sees that his team can grow heading into its next exhibition match before opening the season: "I liked our serve-receive for the most part tonight. I thought at times there was a little bit of a break down here or there. That's really what it's going to come down to for us; our serve and pass game, and our ability to not only impact and make less serving errors, but also less reception errors from our opponent. That's going to be the gauge for us when we start the season."

UP NEXT: South Alabama will travel to Tallahassee, Fla., for its second exhibition match versus Florida State on Saturday, Aug. 23, before opening the season a week later with matches versus Baylor (Aug. 29) and LSU (Aug. 30) in Baton Rouge, La.

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.