PENSACOLA, Fla. - The Argonauts (14-4, 8-0 GSC) finished off an extended stretch of home matchups 5-0 with a comeback 3-0 win (25-23, 25-20, 25-12) over Montevallo (6-12, 4-4 GSC) on Saturday afternoon at UWF Field House.
West Florida dominated the stat sheet despite a slow start, finishing the game hitting .309 with 42 kills to just 12 errors while holding the Falcons to a .108 output and forcing them into 20 miscues to 31 kills. The hosts outhit Montevallo in every set, with the lowest margin of .081 coming in a tight first frame and outgaining the latter .281 to .118 in the second and .323 to -.065 in the third.
The Falcons put an early scare into UWF, scoring the first four points and leading by as much as nine points. Trailing 14-5, the Argonauts rattled off five straight points and then four straight after a trade of scores that culminated in a
Gabi Moulton ace to get within two. They got to within one after a Montevallo kill via a
Caiden Largent kill and a
Yomaris Rodriguez ace before tying it at 20 apiece thanks to
Damyah Joyner and
Annie Monaco kills. The Falcons scratched one back to take another brief lead before kills from Joyner and
Bailee Sterling sandwiched a block by
Avery Rodgers and Sterling to give their team a 23-21 lead. Montevallo tied it back, but Rodgers sent an attack home and Monaco served up an ace to give UWF a hard-fought 1-0 lead.
Montevallo opened the scoring in the second frame and owned two three-point leads, but the Argos again didn't blink, scoring three straight to tie it and then producing a 7-0 run that resulted in a 12-6 lead. After the teams scored in a back-and-forth manner, UWF generated another key run by scoring five straight. Largent registered a kill to get it started before
Liberty McLean, in her most extensive action as an Argonaut, split on a block with Largent and earned a kill of her own. A Moulton ace and a Falcon miscue brought the Argo lead to 21-13. After a service error,
Jacque Martin fired an ace of her own. Monaco's kill brought up set point, and though things got tense with five straight Montevallo points to lengthen the frame, another error ended it.
From there, UWF mostly coasted through the third frame with the win firmly in sight.
Izabelle Sanchez started things off right with an ace before assisting Joyner on a kill and then gaining one herself. After falling behind by one, the Argos answered every Montevallo charge, eventually breaking open an 11-11 score with a block party. In a 7-0 span, Joyner had a solo block while Sterling and Largent combined for two more to lengthen the lead to 18-11. The team totaled 19 blocks to just four for the opponents. After a lone Montevallo kill, the Argos never looked back in scoring the last seven points of the contest. Joyner and Largent put forth three kills that paired with three Falcon errors before Sterling ended the set the way Sanchez began it to put this one in the books.
UWF extends its winning streak to 11 games with the result and its streak over the Falcons to 26 games. After two weeks' worth of home games, the Argonauts continue GSC play on the road at Shorter on October 13 for a 6 p.m. ET tipoff.
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