JONESBORO, Ark. – Emily Jarome tallied a match-high 19 kills to go along with 14 digs, and Georgia Southern scored three straight points in the fifth set to hang on for a 3-2 (25-19, 25-17, 15-25, 21-25, 15-12) volleyball win over Arkansas State in its Sun Belt Conference opener Friday night in First National Bank Arena.

The Red Wolves (5-8, 0-1) battled back from a 2-0 deficit and led 11-10 in the fifth set after a solo block by Kassidy Reeves. The Eagles (9-4, 1-0) called timeout, and Baylor Bumford and Jordan Christy notched consecutive kills to give Georgia Southern a 12-11 lead. Macey Putt put down a kill for Arkansas State, but Jarome answered with a kill for the Eagles. Bumford and Christy combined on a block to set up match point, and Christy ended it with a cross-court kill.

Eagles of the Match
Christy finished with 14 kills, five digs and three blocks, and Bumford was credited with 10 kills and six blocks. Callaway Cason totaled 44 assists, 10 digs and two blocks, and Ashlyn Lovett finished with 16 digs. Rebekah Farthing chipped in 14 digs.

Key stats 
The Eagles had a 79-75 edge in digs and a 10-6 advantage in blocks to hold Arkansas State to .169 hitting for the match. The Red Wolves had 22 more attack attempts and nine more hitting errors.

Quotables from Coach Chad Willis
"I'm clearly proud of the result and happy to see us stay the course and close it out late in the 5th on the road. I thought we did some really nice things in stretches but also showed some areas we need to clean up going into tomorrow's match. We won the day and earned an opportunity tomorrow to win the weekend."

Next up
The Eagles and Red Wolves will square off again tomorrow in First National Bank Arena. First serve is set for 2 p.m. ET.