BOX SCORES
MOBILE, Ala. – The South Alabama women's volleyball team dropped its final home match of the season Friday night, when Sun Belt Conference rival Louisiana-Lafayette defeated the Jags, 3-1, at Jag Gym.
South Alabama (7-15, 1-8 SBC) trailed throughout much of the opening contest of the match. With UL-Lafayette (5-16, 2-6 SBC) holding a four-point advantage at 22-18, the Jag women began to claw their way back and eventually tied the game up at 24-24 on a Jade Nuss service ace, one of her three on the night. After exchanging the next two points, USA outscored ULL 5-1 the rest of the way to take the opener 30-26. The Jag victory was capped off by a Brittany Blackwelder kill.
In game two, the two clubs battled back-and-forth until with the game knotted at 10-all, the Ragin' Cajuns took the lead for good after a Jag attack error. ULL went on to outscore the Lady Jags 20-8 the rest of the way and finished the second game with a hitting percentage of .314 compared to USA's .000.
The Cajuns used three straight kills in game three to break a 9-9 tie and hold the early advantage. South Alabama, however, kept battling and eventually was able to square the contest at 18-18 on a Jenna Swilley kill. The Swilley kill was during a streak of six consecutive Jaguar points that gave USA a 22-18 lead. The run was capped off by another Nuss service ace. The Cajuns answered right back by taking seven of the next nine points and reclaimed the lead on a block assists by ULL's Kim Rogers and Tara Cote. Tied a 25-apiece, ULL used a 5-3 spurt to end the game and take the 30-27 victory.
In the finale, ULL again held the advantage at the midway point of the game (19-14). South Alabama, as it had done all night continued to fight and tied the contest up at 21-21 courtesy of a Cajun attack error. After UL-Lafayette was able to push the margin back out to two, the Lady Jags used a 7-3 run to hold game point at 29-27. The Cajuns however, spoiled the South Alabama effort and took the final four points of the match to take game four 31-29 and the match 3-1.
USA was balanced offensively, placing four players in double figures in kills (Whitney Sanders (13), Summer Pilgrim and Shannon VanAntwerp (12) and Swilley with 11). Swilley (19) and VanAntwerp (10) also had double figure dig performances on the evening. True freshman Colleen Downey recorded a team-high 23 digs on the night. Nuss had 18 digs and 48 assists. VanAntwerp recorded a match-high four service aces on the night for USA.
Louisiana-Lafayette was paced by Elina Salomaki's 19 kills. Cajun libero Teri Vicknair recorded a match-high 28 digs to lead ULL.
South Alabama will next head to Denver on Nov. 4 to take on the Pioneers at 7 p.m.
NOTE: South Alabama's final non-conference match of the season at Spring Hill, originally scheduled for Nov. 9, has been moved to Tuesday, Nov. 8. The contest is still scheduled to start at 7 p.m.
