PENSACOLA, Fla. – The No. 22-ranked University of West Florida volleyball team swept Gulf South Conference rival North Alabama 3-0 (25-16, 25-19, 25-17) at home on Friday night. West Florida (26-5, 18-1 GSC) clinched the top spot in the GSC regular season standings with the win over UNA and will host the conference tournament on November 21-22.
 
This will be the sixth time UWF has hosted the Gulf South Conference Tournament and the first time since 2013.
 
"Hosting the conference tournament has been something that our players have been talking about for the last year," head coach Melissa Wolter said. "They felt like they missed out on an opportunity last year and I think they realized how special it is. I feel like we've played well throughout the year and I'm just really proud of our team for earning this opportunity."
 
West Florida used a .248 team attacking percentage and 10 blocks to complete the regular season sweep over North Alabama on Friday night.
 
"This was a really important match for us tonight," Wolter said. "I have great respect for UNA and coach (Stephanie) Radecki for what she's done with her team. They are so diverse, so athletic; they are incredibly dangerous. I think our block was critical tonight. We knew that we needed to do our best to shut down some players early in the match and I felt like we did a great job of that."
 
The Argonauts extend their home winning streak against the Lions to nine, and increased their all-time record against UNA to 22-13. West Florida has won the last 21 out of 24 matches against North Alabama.
 
UWF seniors Autumn Duyn (Venice, Fla./Venice HS) and Colleen Starrs (West Bloomfield, Mich./Walled Lake Central HS)  were honored before the match for their contributions to the West Florida volleyball program. Duyn had eight kills and a team-high 16 digs on the night while Starrs added eight digs and three service aces.
 
"Senior night is always special but I think when you have two players like Colleen and Autumn who have played in the program for as they have it is really special," Wolter said. "I'm excited that they have another opportunity to come out on our home court tomorrow and next weekend. Their ability to be clutch under pressure for us is something that will be greatly missed."­
 
Junior Corisha Smith (Inwood, W.Va./Musselman HS) tallied a team-high 13 kills at an impressive .345 clip while junior Kathryn Torre (Highland, Ill./State College of Florida) had 10 kills on 16 swings with only two attack errors (.500). Torre added five blocks in the win while sophomore Emily Cosgrove (Birmingham, Ala./Oak Mountain HS) had five blocks as well with three kills.
 
Sophomore Monique StCyr (Williamsburg, Va./Jamestown HS) tallied 34 assists in the win and moved into fifth place on the career assists list at UWF (1,834). StCyr also had three service aces and moved into fifth on the career service aces list at West Florida (95) on Friday night.
 
West Florida will wrap up the regular season at home on Saturday, November 14 against GSC opponent Alabama Huntsville at 2 p.m. CT.
 
UWF will host the 2015 GSC Tournament Championship on November 21-22. West Florida will face the winner of the quarterfinal matchup between No. 4-seed Shorter and No. 5-seed Alabama Huntsville in the tournament semifinals on Saturday, November 21. Times for tournament matches will be determined next week.
 
For information on all UWF athletics, visit www.GoArgos.com.