Road to Glory: Southern finishes strong

Former head coach of the women’s volleyball team, Nathaniel Denu, predicted that the Lady Jags will not be the underdogs in tournament play but surpass limits that they haven’t before.
He was absolutely right.
The road to the championship isn’t an easy one in women’s volleyball as it has been fifteen years since Southern University has reached the pinnacle they have now when they hosted the Southwestern Athletic Conference Championship double elimination tournament at Clifford Seymour Gym and Horace Moody Sr. Intramural Complex, November 22 through the 23.
Unfortunately, in tournament play, Southern went undefeated until they faced Alabama State on November 23, in which they were eliminated from the tournament and Alabama State was named SWAC Champions. The first game wasn’t a clean sweep by the Lady Hornets but Southern held onto the first set and stretched to the fourth set (25-20, 14-25, 19-25, 17-25). The second game ended in a clean sweep by the Lady Hornets (17-25, 16-25, 18-25).
Southern overcame many teams before they reached this point. First on November 22, the Lady Jags extinguished Alabama A&M in a desired clean sweep (25-18, 25-18, 25-20). On the same day, they also took down Texas Southern once again in the same fashion as the previous team (25-19, 25-23, 25-23).
Their road block from the sweep was Jackson State in which Southern took it to the fifth set at home (25-21, 18-25, 25-21, 23-25, 15-11)
At primetime on the same night that Southern took the win from Jackson State is when they lost in the championship round against Alabama State. Head coach Venessa Jacobs despite the odds said that she is proud of the team for going all of the way.
“I’m proud of them no matter what because we were four and four in the season and nobody expected us to be where we were but we got here. We set goals and we accomplished all but one but next time we have to be the one holding those hats,” said Jacobs.
The one recruited by Jacobs, senior Marisol Macias, was talked positively by her teammate sophomore Phalen Clark with, “She played her heart out and that’s all we can ask for.”
Macias ends her last night with her spirit intact but with nostalgia for the sport.
“I told Marisol that when I recruited her that we were going to change the culture of our program and that’s what we did tonight,” said Jacobs in high spirits after the tournament.
In high hopes at the end of the season Southern might not have captured the gold but next year, they will be contenders as they will be known to be tournament runner ups instead of underdogs.