MOBILE, Ala. ? Despite having five players finish with double digit kill tallies, the South Alabama volleyball team dropped a five-game heartbreaker to Lipscomb, 3-2 (27-30, 30-25, 26-30, 11-15) Friday night in the opening round of the Jaguar Classic. In the first match of the tournament, McNeese State picked up a 3-0 victory over Kennesaw State.
USA (3-4) will continue tournament play on Saturday with a pair of matches. The Jags will take on Kennesaw State at 11 a.m. and then McNeese State at 4 p.m. With the win, Lipscomb improves to 4-7 on the season. The Lady Bison’s Sarah Snider recorded a match-high 24 kills in the win for LU. Juliana Pallamin de Almeida led South Alabama with a career-best 20 kills. Senior libero Shannon VanAntwerp was one dig short of tying a career-high with 24 digs in the loss.
South Alabama seemed to hurt itself at inopportune times all night in the serving category, committing 19 service errors, compared to Lipscomb’s 10.
GAME ONE: South Alabama 30, Lipscomb 27
After dropping the first point of the game, USA took the early advantage at 6-2 on one of Hristina Markova’s 18 kills on the night. South Alabama held a four point advantage for much of the rest of the opener, until the Lady Bison closed the gap to 27-25 on an Alex Kelly put away. That was as close as the Jags would let them get though as Markova sealed the three-point victory for USA with another kill.
GAME TWO: Lipscomb 30, South Alabama 25
In the second game of the match, it was the Lipscomb that came out of the gates on fire, building as much as a 9-3 lead early on. Kelly put the Lady Bison up by six with one of her 12 kills in the match. USA was able to get as close as 25-21 after a LU attack error, but the Bison went on to take the 30-25 game two victory on a Snider kill.
GAME THREE: South Alabama 30, Lipscomb 26
South Alabama broke an early 5-5 tie in game three with a quick four point spurt to take the lead. In what would be the standard for the rest of the contest, Lipscomb battled back to narrow the gap only to see USA regroup and stretch its advantage back out. After a kill from Snider pulled the Bison to within two late at 28-26, USA managed to hold on and take the final two points of the third game and capture the 30-26 victory.
GAME FOUR: Lipscomb 30, South Alabama 23
Holding a 2-1 lead in the match heading into game four, USA looked as if it was going to cruise the rest of the way. Led by three kills from Almeida, the Jags jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead. Lipscomb did not roll over though and continued to battle back. With South Alabama still holding a six point advantage at 15-9, Lipscomb reeled off a 15-5 run over the next several points to take its first lead of game four. Kelly put Lipscomb up by four (24-20) with another kill. South Alabama was unable to rebound from the Bison run and went on to drop the game 30-23.
GAME FIVE: Lipscomb 15, South Alabama 11
In the finale, Lipscomb broke an 8-8 tie after another Jag service ace. The USA miscue ignited a 7-2 spurt for the Lady Bison down the stretch as they went on to take the game and the match with the 15-11 victory.
