The Southern University Lady Jaguars Women’s Volleyball Team took on the Texas Southern University Lady Tigers last night in Seymour Gym. Both teams came into this
conference matchup desperately in need of a win. The Lady Jags came into this one looking to snap a 3-game losing skid, as well as looking to get their first conference win of the season. The team has been off to a rough start this season, having played some highly difficult non- conference matchups against opponents such as Lamar, Tulane, and UL Lafyette. Going to respectable 4 sets, the Lady Jaguars did in fact suffer another loss on Monday night, losing by a score of 3 sets to 1.
The Jags started off the first set pretty slowly, struggling to find any momentum out of the gate. On the contrary, the Tigers came out and took a small yet commanding lead to force Southern to burn a timeout quickly. The story early in the first set was the amount of attack errors that they committed. As the first set continued to play out the Lady Jaguars were able to string together a rally and put themselves within striking distance at the midway point of the set. However, this would be the end of the momentum for the Jags, as they would proceed to drop the first set by a score of 25-16. Not enough effort given in the opening frame by the Lady Jags, to go along with the attacking errors, and the large deficit in blocks (5-1 TSU).
Following a pretty lackluster performance in the first set, the Jags look to come out with a little bit more urgency to start the second set. This however would not be the case, as the Lady Tigers of Texas Southern would come out and take a commanding lead over the Jaguars after the early slump by them. The score went all the way up to 18-11 in favor of Texas Southern. This lead ended up being too insurmountable for the Lady Jags, as they would go on to drop the 2nd set by a score of 25-17. More of the same for The Lady Jaguars, as they still continue to struggle to find a level of consistency. 3-0 in service errors and still losing the battle in kills 14-9. While they did clean up the attacking errors, it still was not enough to overcome the deficit that they put themselves in.
Following a solid performance in the second set, the Jaguars followed it up with a much-needed sense of urgency to begin the third set. They came out of the gate and took an early lead (13-8 SU), which forced two early timeouts for Texas Southern. The momentum had shifted, and the crowd started to get into this one, which ultimately helped to propel the Lady Jaguars to winning the third set and keeping their dreams alive of winning the match (25-13 SU). This time it was Southern that was on the offensive, as they lead the set in both blocks (4-0 SU) and kills (12-8 SU) against the Tigers.
The fourth set was one that Southern hoped to take to keep their hopes of winning alive, but ultimately, they would fall short as the Lady Tigers or Texas Southern would ultimately
prevail. The Jaguar did all that they could, scratching and clawing their way back into the contest, but the deficit was too insurmountable for them as the hole that they put themselves in early proved to be too much for them to handle. They forced a couple of attacking errors on the part of Texas Southern, as well as making them call their timeouts, but the story of the fourth set as the lack kills, as TSU dominated in that category in the final set (12-5 TSU).
Despite a rather resilient and gutsy performance from the Lady Jaguars, they ultimately ended up dropping their 11th game of the season, as well as their second conference matchup of the year. They look to bounce back on the road against the Alcorn State Braves on October 3rd.
