MONTEVALLO, Ala. - West Florida (9-5, 4-0 GSC) pulled away after a tight opening frame to defeat Montevallo (5-10, 2-3 GSC) via sweep (26-24, 25-19, 25-15) at Central State Bank Arena and open its road conference slate with a win. With the result, the Argos earned their third sweep in four GSC contests and their sixth straight over the Falcons, as well as their 28th straight win over Montevallo with their last loss in the series coming in 2003, Coach Melissa Wolter's first season at UWF.
 
The Argos hit .327 for the contest with 51 kills on 110 attacks, with their lowest mark a .270 percentage in the final frame. They held the hosts to just 99 attacks, 51 of which the latter converted for a .212 output. UWF led in kills and percentage in each frame with the margin growing larger as the match went on. Montevallo won the categories of errors and aces by one and blocks by three, the latter of which kept the first set to its close margin. 
 
Kumara Flanagain led off her squad with 14 kills on a .346 percentage with four block assists. Gabi Moulton led the Argos in percentage with .625 by finding the floor on five of her eight attacks. She also led in assists with 40 and aces with two. Emily Breazeale scored eight kills with 10 digs and a pair of assists on both the block and kill. Magdalena Vongkasemsiri stuffed the stat sheet once again with eight kills of her own on just 15 attacks with no errors for a .533 performance while assisting six blocks. Caiden Largent put up seven kills and Jenna Zydlo six. Meg Brackhan and Camryn Brooks had 13 and nine scoops, respectively.
 
In the opening set, the Argos claimed four more kills than the Falcons but three more hitting errors to lead in hitting percentage .325 to .300. The six errors, five of which were forced by Montevallo blocks, kept the match a bit too close for comfort for a while as the teams went back and forth trading runs and the lead. After a solo block put the Falcons up 23-22, Moulton hit a kill to knot things back up for a moment before a kill gave the hosts set point. As the senior middle from Kansas has done so often throughout her Argo career, Zydlo came up big with a kill off a Moulton assist to tie it back up and an ace to turn the tables on UM and earn her team set point. Breazeale gave her team the 1-0 lead with a kill of her own.
 
The second frame mostly went the same way as the teams mostly traded points until the midway point but the Argos pulled away with a .394 set to the Falcons' .310. Leading 13-11, two kills from Flanagain sandwiched one by Zydlo, and two more from Largent and one by Breazeale put UWF firmly in the driver's seat at 20-13. After a 4-1 UM span, two errors put points back on the Argos' side and Breazeale scored another kill in between them to get to set point, where she eventually scored once more to tie up the middle frame.
 
At this point, the Argos were determined to not give Montevallo any hope of a comeback as they scored 16 kills for a .270 set to the latter's seven kills and seven miscues for a net-zero period. Flanagain stamped her name on the opening 6-0 run as she split a block with Vongkasemsiri to open the scoring and scored three straight kills following a Moulton ace. After UM scratched three points back, Vongkasemsiri split consecutive blocks, the first with Flanagain and the second with Largent, before Flanagain registered another kill. Another kill from both Vongkasemsiri and Largent and another error wrapped up a 6-1 UWF run to go up 12-4. The hosts would pull within 15-11, but the same scorers for the Argos stepped up when needed to move ahead 23-14. Flanagain moved it to set point off an assist from Brackhan and Largent sealed the 3-0 final score with a kill set by Moulton.
 
The Argos don't have much time to celebrate the hard-fought win as they face their toughest challenge of the GSC slate so far tomorrow afternoon at 2 pm. They travel to Spragins Hall in Huntsville, Ala., for a battle between the top two squads in the GSC as they take on the No. 1 team in the conference, Alabama Huntsville. This will be the Argos' first opponent in the top five of the league standings, as Montevallo is at the middle spot at No. 6. The Chargers are 14-1 with a 5-0 mark in conference play and a 6-1 mark at home. The last meeting between these programs was in last season's GSC Championship match in a sweep for the Argos that ended in a frenetic 35-33 third set. UWF has not lost to UAH since 2018.  
 
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