PENSACOLA, Fla. – The University of West Florida volleyball program is one step closer to its eighth Gulf South Conference Tournament Championship after a 3-1 victory over Montevallo in the UWF Field House on Saturday afternoon. In addition to the win, senior middle blocker Mackenzie Chrisman broke the UWF Single Season Blocks Record with her 138th block in the first set, sophomore Logan Kael recorded her 1,000th dig of her career in the fourth set, and Head Coach Melissa Wolter recorded her 400th match win at West Florida.
Today's victory pushed West Florida into the conference championship match for the fourth consecutive year.
"We're excited about the opportunity to fight for another championship," Wolter said, "today is today and tomorrow we'll handle whoever we end up facing."
In set one, the Argos started in a four point deficit, but it didn't take them long to gain the lead back. UWF went on a six point run with Taylor Vaneekeren serving. The Argos lost the serve but regained it on a first ball kill by Makila York and followed it with another six point run with Ashton Marshall serving this time to make it a 16-7 set before losing the serve. Montevallo tried to come back in the game by minimizing the length of run the Argos had, but were unable to dig themselves out of the hole. UWF took the first set 25-15.
The Argos took the second set in a close game 25-22. The Argos trailed again to begin and gained the lead after being down 6-5 and going on a four point run to gain the lead 9-6. UWF stayed in control of the set until UM went on a short run to gain a two point lead 18-16. The Argos took a timeout and to follow that was a four point point run to lead 20-18. A kill by Poppen ended the set.
UWF was up 2-0 in the match heading into the third set, and lost 25-21. The two teams stayed within two points on each other up until UM went on a costly run. Argos led 17-15 and then the Falcons went on a five point run to give them the lead 20-17. UWF subbed Kierra Potts in to change up the offense, but unfortunately the damage was already done. The Argos lost set three.
In the whole fourth set, UWF held UM to only 10 points. Though not getting any attempts in set three, Potts went 3-5 with no errors in the fourth set hitting a .600. As a team, the Argos had a 90% sideout percentage and hit a .481 as a team in set four with only one attack error. Both Chrisman and Williams went 4-6 with no errors in the set. The Argos started up 3-0 in the set. Later on, UWF went on a four point run followed by a seven point run making it a 17-5 game. UWF won the set 25-10 and won the match 3-1.
The Argos as a team played great volleyball with Nadine Williams leading in kills with 13 followed by Caleigh Morrison with 12, and then Poppen and Chrisman each with 10 kills. Morrison led the team in block today with five blocks, followed by Makila York with four blocks. Five Argos had aces against Montevallo including Ashton Marshall, Brogan Wallin, Williams, Chrisman, and Kael.
On the defensive end, Kael led the team in digs with 24 followed by Williams and Marshall, each with 13 digs. Taylor Vaneekeren led in assists with 26 and Wallin recorded 22 assists in the four sets.
"We're a winning program so that is our expectation, but we want to go further than any other program here has before so that is our goal right now" Poppen said, "we just need to take it one game at a time."
UWF will face 2-seed West Alabama at noon on Sunday, November 11th in the Field House.
#ARGOS#
