FLORENCE, Ala. – The No. 19-ranked University of West Florida volleyball team swept North Alabama 3-0 (25-14, 25-19, 25-16) on the road Saturday afternoon in a battle of the top two teams in the Gulf South Conference standings. West Florida (17-2, 10-0 GSC) increases its lead in the GSC to two matches with the win and extends its winning streak to 13.
"I think today was a great opportunity for our team to showcase their character," head coach
Melissa Wolter said. "It is hard to win against three quality opponents in the same week. North Alabama is a great opponent; they are leading the conference in several statistical categories so we had to be really strategic about what we did. Out players followed our game plan to a T."
UWF has only dropped two sets during its current winning streak (39-2) and remains unbeaten in conference play.
"Our players are remaining hungry and I think that's important," Wolter said. "We've worked really hard in practice at being good in critical situations and it's paid off. When another team makes a run our players are able to make adjustments. They are taking great pride in every set we play. That is a sign of a very mature and disciplined team."
West Florida had only 10 attack errors in the match at an impressive .319 team attacking percentage. North Alabama was held to a .160 team attacking percentage and had 19 attack errors in the loss.
UWF had seven service aces in the win led by senior
Colleen Starrs (West Bloomfield, Mich./Walled Lake Central HS) who tallied three aces from behind the service line.
Juniors
Corisha Smith (Inwood, W.Va./Musselman HS) and
Cora Bidlack (Randolph, N.J./Randolph HS) were efficient in the win and led the Argonauts offensively. Smith tallied 11 kills on 22 attempts with only two attack errors (.409) while Bidlack had nine kills on 16 attempts with one attack error (.500). The junior duo combined for six blocks with three blocks each.
Senior
Autumn Duyn (Venice, Fla./Venice HS) had eight kills and a pair of service aces, sophomore
Rachel Neblett (Austin, Texas/Vista Ridge HS) added six kills and a solo block while junior
Kathryn Torre (Highland, Ill./State College of Florida) had six blocks and three kills in the win.
Sophomore
Monique StCyr (Williamsburg, Va./Jamestown HS) had a match-high 33 assists while Starrs and junior
Holly Mattmuller (Venice, Fla./Venice HS) each had a team-high nine digs.
West Florida will next travel to Carrollton, Georgia, for the 2015 South Region Crossover on October 16-17. UWF will enter the crossover as the No. 1 seed representing the Gulf South Conference and will face the No. 4 seed from the Sunshine State Conference to open the regional on Friday, October 16 at 2:30 p.m. ET.
UWF will then face the No. 2 seed from the SSC later that day at 7 p.m. ET before facing the No. 6 seed from the SSC on Saturday, October 17 at 12:15 p.m. ET. The draw for the South Region Crossover will be finalized on Sunday.
For information on all UWF athletics, visit
www.GoArgos.com.
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