The Alabama State women’s volleyball team fought hard and kept sets close all day, but couldn’t quite get the key points it needed on the third-and final-day of the ISTAP Collegiate Cup 2 volleyball tournament Saturday at the Dunn-Oliver Acadome.
In the last match of the day, Southern Mississippi edged out ASU in a tightly contested three-setter 27-25, 25-20, 23-25.
The Golden Eagles’ Stephany Purdue seemed to be at the center of it all when set point was on the line. She was serving when Southern Miss squeaked by in a first set that needed extra points to decide the winner. Then, Purdue came up with set-winning kills in both the second and third sets.
The first set outlined just how close it was. The Lady Hornets (4-9) fought back to tie it at 18 all, 20 all, 22 all and 23 all. There were 17 ties in all of the set. But, the Golden Eagles prevailed 27-25.
In the third set, ASU again pushed the Golden Eagles hard by knotting the score at 12-12. The teams stayed tied late in the match at 17-17 when Chelsey Scott put down a kill on a feed from Brooke Beasley.
Southern Miss took the next three points on kills by Purdue, Quinci Hayward and Chanel Joyce.
Rachel Smith came up with two kills and Scott added another to keep ASU within striking distance to complete the comeback, but Jasmine Crowell and Purdue fired back with a point each to close the set 25-23.
For the Lady Hornets, Chelsey Scott had a team-high 11 kills. Smith added nine kills, five digs and four blocks. Tiara Kelley had seven kills on a .385 hitting percentage.
Top setter Ellyn Jones had 14 assists, five digs and three aces. Brooke Beasley added 13 assists and Myla Marshall made her presence known defensively at the net with six blocks. Jamie Coleman led the defensive back line with 13 digs and also added two aces.
Purdue led the Golden Eagles (9-4) with 15 kills on a .464 hitting percentage. Hayward was next in line with 12 kills.
In the morning match, ASU fell in straight sets against Alabama (19-25, 17-25, 13-25).
In the first set, the Tide rolled out to a 7-1 lead. But the Hornets were able to rally back on a pair of kills from Amber Bennett and service aces from Beasley and Marshall.
Further along the set, Scott threw down a vicious kill, Bennett thumped another spike and Coleman notched an ace and a service point to pull the teams into a 15-15 tie.
The Tide (7-2) was able to tighten up their net play to win six of the next seven points to get some breathing room and held 25-19.
In the second set, the Lady Hornets once again had to battle back from an early eight-point deficit.
Smith, Marshall and Kelley strung together back-to-back-to back points for the Hornets to get ASU within 18-13. The Tide answered with kills from Krystal Rivers and Katherine White on feeds from Sierra Wilson. Wilson finished with 38 assists. Alabama closed out the set 25-17.
The Tide was able to get out a 10-3 advantage in the third set after a pair of kills by Brittany Thomas. Following a service error, Thomas picked up two more kills over the following three points. The sophomore wound up with 12 kills.
The Hornets received one more booming hit in the set from Scott on an assist from Beasley before the Tide’s 6-foot-3 freshman Kat Hutson closed out the set 25-17 on a kill of her own.
Bennett finished with a team-high seven kills, Kelley had five kills with a team-best for efficiency (.300 hitting percentage) and Scott added four kills.
The setting duties were mainly split up between Jones (11 assists) and Beasley (seven assists).
Coleman continued to show solid defensive skills with a team-high eight digs.
