PENSACOLA, Fla. – The University of West Florida volleyball program is one step closer to its seventh Gulf South Conference Tournament Championship after a 3-0 victory over Shorter in the UWF Field House on Saturday afternoon. In addition to the strong team play, senior setter Monique StCyr recorded a career-high six service aces on the afternoon to climb to the top of the UWF record books with 166 career service aces.
 
The victory pushed West Florida into the conference championship match for the third consecutive year, and for the third consecutive year the Argos will face 2-seed North Alabama.
 
StCyr, who already holds UWF's all-time assists record, led the way for UWF on Saturday with 37 assists, 12 digs and a match-high six aces.
 
"Mo is a player who we knew when we recruited her could be a program-changer, and that's exactly what she's done for us," Wolter said of StCyr. "She's just so consistent, super competitive, and one of the things I've always loved about her was how she serves the ball. That's definitely a big part of her game, going behind the endline and trying to cause people fits, and she certainly did that today."
 
StCyr was far from the only Argonaut who had a big day against the Lady Hawks. Rachel Neblett, Katy Kuhlmeier and Jordyn Poppen each tallied double-digit kills, with Neblett converting 12 of her 22 total attacks to kills and hitting .500 on the day. Defensively, StCyr, Logan Kael and Nadine Williams recorded double-digit digs, and West Florida blocked the Shorter attack nine times on the afternoon.
 
"I think playing a team like Shorter, a team that is so scrappy and plays such good defense, it makes you want to play to the best of your abilities," StCyr said of the win. "We all wanted to see how good we could be. We came out with the win, and it's a pretty good feeling.
 
"I just felt really comfortable, because it's on our home court and I'm playing for my teammates and they're playing for me. We just have to play our game, play hard, and hustle. It's what we try to do every game."
 
The aces started early for StCyr, who recorded one on the second serve of the match. The final three came in the last set, with the first of those cutting UWF's deficit to one point, the second one giving the Argos the lead, and the last one serving as the final nail in the coffin and putting West Florida ahead 23-19.
 
The Argos took the first set by a final of 25-17, with a back-and-forth battle against the Lady Hawks. UWF reeled off an 8-1 run with the score tied at 13-13 to take a 21-14 advantage. After that, the Argos had no difficulty closing up the first set, with two kills by Neblett in the last four points. Neblett and Kuhlmeier each posted four kills in the first set.
 
After winning a 6-2 run, Shorter rallied back on the second set and gained the lead at 10-9. The Argos recovered the lead with a 9-3 run and set the score to 18-13. Poppen led the second set posting five kills and was followed by Williams, who posted four kills.
 
Shorter started the third set strong with an 10-5 lead over UWF, but the Argos went on an impressive 8-0 run against the and regained the lead at 13-10. StCyr posted two service aces in the same run, and Kuhlmeier posted two kills. UWF would win 12 out of the next 21 points to take the third set and the victory at 25-20.
 
UWF will face 2-seed North Alabama at 2 pm in the Field House on Sunday.