CLINTON, Mississippi – In the first match of the GSC-PBC Crossover tournament, the University of Alabama in Huntsville earned an opening win against Augusta, 3-1.
The early rallies of the match fell the way of Augusta (2-7) as UAH (7-0) fell behind 5-0. The Chargers, however, rallied immediately with a four-point run of their own before both sides began a more even-keeled trade of points. Those back-and-forth rallies were tilted decidedly in favor of the Chargers after a few points when UAH scored eight unanswered points to take a 15-8 lead. From that point forward both sides nearly split the remaining points, though that left UAH with the 25-19 advantage at the end of an opening set win. Five Chargers recorded kills through the set with Carlee Lowry leading the way with four while Cooper Garrett scored three kills and the trio of Kayla Ward, Mary Grace Bundrant and Calli Tanielu each recorded two.
Through the entire first half of the second set, neither side gave much ground as the largest lead either side reached was a three-point lead, 10-7, by UAH. Following that mark, the remainder of the set remained deadlocked as each side kept the other within a two-point reach until the final rally that Augusta took to take Set 2, 25-23. Through the set, Ward continued to lead the offense with another four kills while Lowry and Garrett each scored three more.
Both sides remained close to begin the third set as the two-point leading margin remained through until the score reached 15-14 with UAH leading. From that point, the Chargers took control of the remainder of the set as they shut out Augusta en route to a 10-0 run to earn a Set 3 win, 25-14, and take a 2-1 overall lead.
Whereas the previous sets had begun close, the fourth set quickly went in favor of UAH. The Chargers scored five unanswered points to open Set 4 before allowing Augusta to get on the board. Even from there, though, the Chargers continued to build their lead with another 5-1 run to push the score to 10-2. While Augusta came a little closer midway through the set while cutting the Chargers' lead down to 15-11, UAH kept its momentum and closed out the set and match with a 25-17 Set 4 win.
IN THE STATS
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Kayla Ward paced the Chargers' offense with 13 kills while Carlee Lowry and Cooper Garrett also each reached double digits with 12 and 11 kills, respectively.
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Garrett and Anna Clare Hutto lead UAH in assists as Garrett recorded 19 while Hutto added 18.
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UAH recorded 10 total blocks with Lowry leading the way with three while Ward added another two.
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The Chargers limited Augusta to four blocks through the match while attacking at a .224% efficiency.
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Libero Brooklyn Stiles led UAH in digs with 15, but Lowry and Garrett also earned double digit digs with 15 and 14, respectively.
