University of South Alabama Athletics

MOBILE, Ala. | Cambria Gaier (14), Dalayla Blackwell (12) and Alexa Strandberg (10) each recorded double-digit kill tallies, but South Alabama (3-6) dropped a 3-1 (25-23, 25-14, 26-28, 25-23) decision to Tulane (6-2) Sunday afternoon at the South Alabama Invitational held at Jaguar Gym.

Quotable – head coach Jesse Ortiz
- On the match: "There was a lot of fight in our group today. We just have to work to get better in some areas. Credit to Tulane, they came out after us and you saw the energy they had. When we were able to pass and get into rhythm, we could answer back to their physicality. We're just going to have to play better and keep progressing." 

How It Happened 
Set 1 – Tulane 25, South Alabama 23
•    KEY MOMENT: Gaier looked as if she would tie the opening set with TU holding set point, but Makena Lim kept the ball alive for Tulane with a one-handed diving dig, a point the Green Wave went on to pick up and take the set
•    Tied 9-9, Tulane pushed across six of the next seven points to take a five-point lead
•    Lim capped off the run with back-to-back aces to give the Green Wave a 15-10 lead at the media timeout, their third and fourth of the set
•    Tulane later led 20-15, but Strandberg slammed home a kill on the ensuing rally to ignite a 6-1 Jaguar run
•    Sarah Gooch had a kill and a block assist with Blackwell, and Anabelle Cerny trimmed the Green Wave lead to 21-20 with and ace
•    Coming out of a time out, Chloe List ended the Jag run with a kill
•    South Alabama kept fighting and pulled within a point (24-23) following a kill by Eva Dittmar, but Lauryn Mack sealed the win for Tulane one point later with a kill of her own
•    The Jaguars posted a .344 hitting percentage in the first set, but committed four serving errors and four reception errors compared to just one of each by the Green Wave

Set 2 – Tulane 25, South Alabama 14
•    KEY MOMENT: Tied early on in the second set, Tulane scored 11 of the next 12 points to break things open
•    Tied 2-2, Riley Tucker posted a kill to ignite an 11-1 Tulane run which was aided by five Jaguar attack errors
•    Mack capped off the scoring and gave the Green Wave a 13-3 lead with her fourth kill of the night
•    Tulane grew its lead to as much as 12 before going on to take the set, 25-14
•    The Jaguars committed seven attack errors in the frame and registered a -.111 hitting percentage

Set 3 – South Alabama 28, Tulane 26
•    KEY MOMENT: Tulane held match point, but Strandberg recorded three-straight kills to rally the Jags in extra points
•    South led 17-13 after back-to-back kills by Gaier, but Tulane quickly cut deficit to one with three-straight points, and then tied it back up (18-18) after a bad set by the Jaguars
•    With Tulane holding a 22-21 lead, Gaier slammed home back-to-back kills to force a Green Wave time out, but Tucker slammed home a kill to tie it at 23-23, and TU held match point one point later
•    Gaier forced the set into extra points with two more kills, but Tucker and List answered back with kills of their own to give Tulane match point
•    Led by Strandberg, who had three-straight kills, the first off an assist by Cerny and then the last two after over passes by the Green Wave, the Jaguars rallied back to take the set, 28-26
•    Gaier 10 kills in the set and a .444 attack percentage, while Strandberg added five and hit .625
•    As a team, South Alabama posted 21 kills and a .378 attack percentage

Set 4 – Tulane 25, South Alabama 23
•    KEY MOMENT: After South had fought off five match points, Charlee Solomon found a hole in the Jaguar defense for a kill to clinch the win 
•    Tulane opened the fourth set with four-straight points, and led 11-5 after a Jaguar attack error
•    USA scored four-straight points to cut deficit to two, but TU answered with four-straight of its own to stretch it back out to six (15-9) at the media time out
•    Jags later rattled off five unanswered to cut deficit to four (21-17) after blocks by Strandberg and Cerny
•    Tulane pushed across three of the next points and set at match point (24-18) after a kill by Solomon
•    Strandberg slammed home a kill and two points later, Blackwell and Delaney Lawson teamed up for a block to cut the Green Wave lead to 24-21
•    After a Tulane time out, Elyse Heffner posted an ace and Blackwell followed with a kill – one of her six in the set – to pull South within a point (24-23)
•    Solomon though found a hole for the final point though to seal the 25-23 win for Tulane

Post-Match Notes
•    The meeting marked the 37th in the all-time series 
•    The win by Tulane snapped a two-match, series win streak by South 
•    Gaier has now finished with double-digit kill tallies six times this fall, while Blackwell has done so in five matches
•    Gaier also eclipsed the 500-kill mark for her career in the match as she now has 506

Up Next
•    South Alabama will next head to Auburn, Ala., to compete in its final non-conference tournament of the fall next weekend at the Alabama Showdown. The Jags will open up play against Samford on Friday at 3 p.m. at Neville Arena.

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