On the road again; Jaguars seek to rebound

Southern University volleyball broke out of the gate early in the preseason, finishing first in the Western Division of the Southwestern Athletic Conference.
On the road from August 28-29, however, Southern was not playing in the SWAC.
They were on the road in Hattiesburg, Mississippi for the Southern Miss tournament against toughened non-conference teams in which they lost three straight in a row.
On Friday, August 28, Southern fell to Nicholls in all three sets, (13-25, 14-25, 21-25).
Southern fell in the defensive ranks on the first two sets by allowing Nicholls to gain double-digit numbers. The third, however SU came to capsize on Nicholls weakness but after a timeout on a 15-15 tie, Southern kept a lead for a single point then fell in the rankings due to attack errors by senior middle blocker, Lelia Lealamafatao and junior outside hitter, Melodie Malone. Southern then settled at 21 points at the end of a very compromising set.
On Saturday, August 29 first were served by Southern Mississippi in three sets and was swept in all three sets (17-25, 15-25, 7-25). The third set burdened SU with a score of 7-25. Southern Mississippi took a three-point drive and opened past Southern defense with six kills, capsizing on four errors from SU players and three service aces down the middle after a 4-4 tie at the beginning of the set.
On the same afternoon, the Lady Jags came back from their loss and suffered a three-peat of losses against Mercer University (14-25, 21-25, 18-25)
Southern did not reach double digit points in the first set until senior middle blocker, Chinasa Ekweairiri, took the kill down the stretch but Mercer still were up 10-16. Southern captured their next points with another kill and three attack errors by the opposition which ended the first set (14-25).
Southern, in the second set on the road became a struggle battle for points because both teams tied five separate times (3-3, 4-4, 5-5, 7-7, 8-8) in the beginning of the set. Southern lost the lead after an attack error by Malone by being blocked by Emily Krogman and Paige Alsten of Mercer. Southern then suffered in the back-end for points at the end of the second set.
The third set instituted a saving grace for Southern to be in the lead in the beginning of the set to attribute a high lead by stunning Mercer early with four kills, two service aces, and two service errors. Left and right Southern was scoring points out of the gate until the (11-11) tie, then Mercer came back to attribute a winning stretch with not allowing Southern to score until point 24 showed on the board.
Southern at the end of the stretch ascended to high heights when they took advantage of Mercer’s speed rolling mistakes by gaining four points by attack errors and a singlet from a bad set.
Unfortunately and ironically, Southern fell by an attack error at the end of the third set.
Southern bands together and face a toughened non-conference matchups as they travel to Edinburgh, Texas for the University of Rio Grande Valley Tournament from Friday, September 4-5 to face San Jose State, UT-Rio Grande Valley, and Incarnate Word.