PENSACOLA, Fla. – The University of West Florida volleyball team fell 3-1 to No. 2 Southwest Minnesota State at the UWF Field House on Saturday afternoon, despite being outscored by just two points across four sets. It was an all-around strong effort from the Argonauts, who dropped to 3-1 on the year after the first weekend of play at the Hampton Inn-Vitational.
 
Monique StCyr and Nadine Williams each posted double-doubles, as StCyr led UWF with 32 assists, Williams tied Jordyn Poppen for the team lead with 14 kills, and each member of the pair tallied 15 digs. Freshman Logan Kael added 32 digs in the match, which led all players and nearly matched her dig total over the first three matches of the weekend.
 
Poppen and Williams hit .286 and .222, respectively, while combining for 80 total attacks for the Argonauts on Saturday afternoon. Mackenzie Chrisman led the Argonauts with a .318 hitting percentage and picked up 9 kills in the contest, while adding a match-high 6 blocks.
 
It was back-and-forth from the start, as UWF dropped the first two sets 23-25 and 24-26, before winning the third 25-20. The final set finished at 22-25 in favor of SMSU. UWF again out-aced its opponent, picking up 9 points off serves compared to SMSU's 4.
 
Neither team led by any more than four points in the first set, with a 20-16 lead for SMSU representing the largest gap in the frame. UWF bounced back from the first-set loss with a strong start to the second set and at one point held a 10-4 lead before the Mustangs nickel-and-dimed their way to a 12-12 tie.
 
The Argos would make a run following a service error from Megan Larson, with Poppen and Chrisman picking up kills to stretch the UWF lead to 18-13. SMSU, however, made two short, three-point runs and a pair of two-point swings to pick up another set win, at 26-24.
 
It was SMSU that got off to a quicker start in the third set, going up 7-3 before West Florida rattled off seven points in a row to take a three-point, 10-7 lead. Trailing 12-11, head coach Melissa Wolter called a timeout, and her Argonauts responded by winning the next four points and eight of the next 10, putting West Florida in position to win the third set and cut the overall deficit to 2-1.
 
The fourth set was as tightly matched as any during the entire weekend tournament. In a set that featured 12 ties and 5 lead changes, SMSU led by as many as four points only once in the set – the largest that either team would see in the final frame.
 
Tied at 22, the Mustangs were able to work three consecutive points and take the win.
 
Rachel Neblett turned in one of the best tournaments of the weekend, hitting .433 over the four matches and totaling double-digit kills in three of the four, while also picking up the second-most blocks (15) and service aces (8) of anyone in the tournament, earning her a spot on the 2017 Hampton Inn-Vitational All-Tournament Team. Poppen also earned a spot on the team, hitting .347 for the weekend and averaging 3.07 kills per set. 
 
UWF is back in action on September 8-9 in Denver, Colorado, for the Colorado Premier Challenge.