STATESBORO – Tournament MVP Nikkia Benitez tallied 15 kills and 11 digs to lead Winthrop to a 3-0 (25-14, 25-23, 25-18) volleyball win over Georgia Southern in the final match of the Georgia Southern Invitational Saturday afternoon in Hanner Fieldhouse. 

Eagles of the game 
Mya Wilson led Georgia Southern (4-3) with 11 kills and added two blocks while hitting .391. 

All-Tournament
Madison Brown and Maddie Bryant joined Wilson on the all-tournament team. Bryant averaged 3.90 kills and 3.20 digs a set, and Brown averaged 11.30 assists a set. Wilson hit .388 on the weekend, averaging 3.20 kills a frame.

Key moment 
Trailing 1-0 in the match, GS fought back from an 8-4 deficit early in the second and took a 21-20 lead on a kill by Wilson. Winthrop (5-3) answered with four straight points as Benitez tallied two kills and was in on a block. GS fought off two set points, but Siani Yamaguchi put down a kill to win the set 25-23 and give Winthrop a 2-0 lead in the match.
 
Key stat
Winthrop hit .304 as a team and served up six aces.

Quotables
Head coach Chad Willis
"Today, we had a lot of good energy, the one thing I told them - that effort play we had at the end of the second set - I said, 'I don't care what we do the rest of the season, but that kind of mentality defined the type of team that we talk about being every single day.' Max effort and be the best version of yourself, and if we continue to do that, good things are going to start happening."

"Today was just the tale of first contact. They controlled first contact - serve and pass - a lot better than we did. We knew going in we were going to have to be the more aggressive team from the service line to get them out of system because they are so balanced and have so many ways to attack you offensively. Unfortunately, we couldn't do that today, but we can take away a lot of positives from this match. We did some good things in moments, and now have to flip the switch to build on those things and make them more consistent as we go along."

Madison Brown
"We fought really hard this weekend and earned those two wins and we learned a lot from today's match. Serving and passing are the most important part of the game and are a priority in our gym, and we struggled in that area today. I know we are going to be hungry to get back in the gym and work on first contact this week."

Next up
The Eagles travel to North Florida for a non-conference contest Tuesday at 6 p.m.