PENSACOLA, Fla. – The University of West Florida volleyball team took its seventh consecutive win and improved to 9-4 overall on Saturday afternoon with a 3-1 win against conference rival Shorter. The team's streak of regular-season Gulf South Conference wins in the UWF Field House extended to 54 with the victory.
 
"You want to take care of business in your home gym, so that was really what we talked about," head coach Melissa Wolter said. "We tried not to make the match any bigger than what it was. They knew what was on the line today, so I barely had to mention (that Shorter was undefeated)."
 
West Florida now leads the conference standings, improving to 5-0 in league play and knocking Shorter to 6-1.
 
Junior middle blocker Rachel Neblett led UWF with career-high 13 kills while hitting .571. With 12 kills on the afternoon, senior outside hitter Corisha Smith was not far behind, and the duo combined for seven blocks and two service aces. Kathryn Torre and Kourtney Pittaway also stood out, with eight and seven kills, respectively. Torre had eight blocks to go along with those kills, and Pittaway hit .438 with no errors and 12 digs.
 
As strong as the offense was, defense was the story for UWF on Saturday. The team forced 34 attacking errors against the Hawks, tallied 15 blocks at the net and held Shorter to a .092 attacking percentage. Five Argos recorded double-digit blocks, with Tori Martella leading the way with 23.
 
Martella now sits just 13 digs away from passing Autumn Duyn on the career digs list, at 1,519.
 
West Florida cruised to a 25-16 win in the first set, holding SU to a -.044 attacking percentage and seeing five players have at least two kills. Neblett and Smith had two kills apiece in the first and turned up their performances in the second and third sets.
 
Despite the second-set 21-25 loss, Neblett and Smith combined for eight kills on 11 attempts. UWF matched Shorter's seven errors in the set but did not have more than three in any of the other three frames.
 
Neblett and Smith were back at it again in the third, and they were joined by Torre's four kills. That trio totaled 13 kills in the third set, as the team hit .333 and took a 25-22 win.
 
The Argonauts had no trouble taking care of business in the fourth set, winning 25-14, recording four service aces and forcing Shorter to a .050 attacking percentage.
 
UWF is back in action on Tuesday afternoon against Mississippi College, which stands at 7-6 overall and 1-5 in the conference.