Blocking Bonanza Key in Volleyball’s Sun Belt Tournament Win Over South Alabama

Friday, November 22

Foley, AL

8:00 p.m.

Georgia Southern University

21-5,10-4Sun Belt

South Alabama

15-12,11-5Sun Belt

South Alabama

Ga. Southern

Photo by: Sun Belt Conference

Blocking Bonanza Key in Volleyball’s Sun Belt Tournament Win Over South Alabama

11/23/2024 12:20:00 AM | Volleyball

Box Score

Eagles record 15 total blocks and season high 20 block assists en route to first semifinals trip in program history

FOLEY, Ala.– Using a 15 total blocks, a season-high 20 block assists and a career-best seven from Maggie Sale, Georgia Southern volleyball (21-5, 10-3 Sun Belt) punched its ticket to the Sun Belt Tournament Semifinals with a 3-0 sweep of South Alabama (15-12, 11-5) on Friday.

"I'm super proud of the group. I thought it was a total team effort," head coach Chad Willis said. "The energy and the level of engagement we had from our bench was awesome. We talked about needing every single bit of that to go W3 this weekend in this tournament. I thought our girls stayed dialed into the game plan, even when in that third set South Alabama built a little bit of a lead, panic never set in. I challenged them all week to consistently stay connected and they were able to do that and come away with a big-time win."

Trailing as much as 9-5 early, the Eagles mounted a comeback on the strength of the block - recording three straight to go up 13-12 after Sale and Jillian Gray combined for one.

The Jags ran back in front to take a 14-13 lead, but an 8-2 spread over the next ten points put the Eagles in cruise control. Reagan Barth smacked a kill to win the opening frame 25-22.

The second set started similarly to the first, with the Eagles trailing 6-4. This was followed by a team-wide bounceback—GS scored 10 of the next 11 points to firmly entrench itself in the lead at 15-8 after Kirsten Barrett's ace.

GS never looked back after that, winning the second set 25-19 on the strength of another four blocks to extend the game total to 10.

Splitting most of the points in the third set early on, the Eagles grabbed a 17-16 lead before a crucial 6-0 run by the Jaguars made it a 22-17 deficit.

GS showed a ton of resiliency after, battling back to tie it at 25. A pair of block assists - Lydia Seymour & Jordan Christy first and Seymour & Gray to close it - gave the Eagles their first-ever trip to the Sun Belt Tournament semifinals and its first-ever sweep in the Tournament and snapping a nine-game losing skid against the Jaguars.

Maggie Sale, who also chipped in six kills, led the way with a career-best seven total blocks to go along with 15 as a team.

"I have to give a shoutout to the game plan," she said. "Our coaches told us where the ball was going, we listened and executed it perfectly. I think that that was the [reason we had] success in tonight's game. We were locked in and we knew what they were gonna do, and we handled our side."

Barth (10 kills, nine digs) led the offensive attack, while Jillian Gray reached 600 career kills by notching six. Gray and Seymour both added six blocks to their ledger.

Ashlyn Lovett had 20 digs for the first time since early October, reaching double digits for the 100th time in her career. Barrett had a strong all-around performance, tying a career-best with four aces and adding 29 assists, six digs and four kills.

The Eagles will take on regular-season champion Arkansas State on Saturday at 6:00 p.m. looking to reach the title game for the first time in program history.