Feel the Sting: Jaguars drop three straight to ASU

Things didn’t go according to plan for the Southern University Women’s volleyball team as they took on the ladies of Alabama State University in Seymour Gym on September 18. The team fought strong for another win but fell short within three sets. (1-25,19-25,9-25)
In the first set, the Lady Jags started off with a two-point lead, however, the hornets began to fight back with a scoring of 5 points straight and the sting never let up. The Alabama State scoring attack was lead by Bayle’ Bennett who finished with a total of 3 spikes and 8 kills as the hornets took the first set 25-10.
We definitely didn’t play up to our standards. Our first game we came out flat and with very little energy. We know that they’re a well-coached team and that they’re going to play us really hard,” said Vanessa Jacobs, adding “We came back out in the second set and played a lot harder and defended well but we’re a team that runs off of the middles and the middles didn’t perform up to their standards of what we are accustomed to. We’ll look at what we did well and what we didn’t do well. We’re really going to practice on it.”
Following the first set the Jags played with a better purpose but just couldn’t shake off the buzzing hornets as they fell short again by 6 points with the most attacks lead by ASU player Kayla Torres with 6 straight points, putting Alabama ahead to secure their lead in the victory in the second set.
Senior outside hitter Melodie Malone reflected on why that the Jags’ effort wasn’t enough to earn the win against the Hornets.
“We just didn’t play to our full potential. We got off to a slow start but I feel like once we hit the practice gym this week we’ll be able to fight back for our match against Alcorn. This game was kind of like an eye opener,” said Malone.“We know that we’re a talented team but there are teams equally as talented as us so we have to be able to put in the same amount of hard work as those teams,” Malone finished.
The mistakes continued to pile up on the Lady Jags resulting in a 16-point lost of the third set as Alabama State wins 25-9.
Senior Libero Diamond Williams spoke on how they plan to recover and approach the rest of the season.
“I feel like we had a lot of mistakes and we weren’t able to bounce back but when we correct those errors we’ll be able to come back even stronger,” said Williams. When asked what how they can improve going forward into the season Williams responded, “We have to produce. We have to execute. We have to perform.”
The Lady Jaguars are eager to bounce back this week as they take on the Braves of Alcorn State in Lorman, Mississippi on Friday September 23.