PENSACOLA, Fla. – With a 3-0 (25-20, 25-21, 25-20) win over Alabama Huntsville on Friday, the University of West Florida volleyball improved to 12-5 overall and 8-1 in Gulf South Conference play, and moved to the top of the league standings. Rachel Neblett tallied 13 kills and hit .476 in the victory, while Monique StCyr led all players with 40 assists.
 
Neblett picked up double-digit kills for the third consecutive game and for the seventh time this year. After hitting .476 against UAH on Friday, the Austin, Texas, native moved into seventh in the GSC in attack percentage (.310). Neblett set or tied her career-best in kills in three of her last four games coming into Friday, picking up 13 against Shorter, and 14 each against Christian Brothers and Union.
 
The match marked the eighth time this year that StCyr has assisted on at least 40 kills, and UWF is 7-1 in those matches. The junior from Williamsburg, Virginia, also added two service aces, giving her 12 on the year, and she ranks third in the GSC in assists per set, with 9.40.
 
With her performance tonight, StCyr is just 16 assists away from passing Melina Pereira on the UWF all-time assists leaderboard.
 
West Florida hit .227 as a team in the victory, with freshman Jordyn Poppen's .714 leading the way. Poppen did all her damage in the second set, picking up five kills and no errors. The rookie added two service aces as well, while Holly Mattmuller added four kills on six tries, good for a .667 attack percentage.
 
As is standard, UWF controlled the net. The Argonauts totaled seven blocks as a team, with StCyr, Neblett, Kathryn Torre and Cora Bidlack each tallying three block assists. West Florida ranks second in the league with 2.27 blocks per set, sitting just 0.01 behind UAH, and the Argos' 145.5 total blocks lead the GSC.
 
Defensively, UWF held the Chargers to a .140 attack percentage and shut down the team's leading attacker in Anna Claire Johnson. Johnson hit -.071 on the evening, with just three kills and five errors on 28 tries. Tori Martella added 19 digs, continuing her climb up the UWF all-time leaderboard in the category.
 
Down 14-15 in the first set, UWF pulled away with five consecutive points with Katy Kuhlmeier at the serve. Kuhlmeier picked up the first point in the stretch with a kill before two consecutive errors from UAH forced the Chargers to take a timeout down 17-15. Corisha Smith and Neblett each added a kill to finish off the run, and UWF would lead by at least three points for the rest of the set.
 
It was more of the same up-and-down action for much of the second set, before UWF pulled away late to get a 25-21 win, and the Argos struggled to go ahead in the third. Down 9-12, UWF got a break following a service error and went on a 6-1 run to take the lead and never looked back.
 
UWF will celebrate the 10th annual "Pack It Pink" game at the Field House tomorrow with a 3 p.m. match against No. 21 North Alabama. The program has generated more than $50,000 for the fight against breast cancer since the event began. In lieu of tickets, the UWF athletic department will be accepting donations going towards the Pensacola Breast Cancer Association. There will also be a silent auction with various items and opportunities that can be bid on prior to the start of the match.