PENSACOLA, Fla. - West Florida volleyball (7-5, 2-0 GSC) celebrated its third annual Silent Set Night at UWF Field House in style on Friday night, dominating from start to finish in a sweep (25-15, 25-12, 25-14) of Union (2-9, 0-2 GSC).
The Argonauts won the hitting battle by at least .300 in each of the three frames while repeatedly keeping the Lady Bulldogs out of system. UWF held the guests to a .011 offensive output with 26 errors and just 27 kills. Union's leading scorer had just seven kills while also committing seven errors.
By contrast, the lowest percentage out of all the Argo hitters who played in all three sets was .259, which came from
Emily Breazeale. The sophomore outside hitter from Hoover, Ala., scored 11 kills on 27 swings with eight digs. Close to her in offensive output at .333 was
Gabi Moulton and
Kumara Flanagain. The former put down three kills on top of her team-leading 22 assists and three aces as well as five scoops. The latter made good on six attacks while assisting on three blocks.
Three Argos hit .500.
Camryn Brooks scored on two of her four swings and scooped eight more digs. While just playing the third set,
Nikki Deslatte scored on four of eight attacks and assisted two blocks. However, once again, it was
Magdalena Vongkasemsiri who once again stole the show in the early going of her freshman campaign. She tallied 10 kills on 18 swings. As if that wasn't enough, she feasted at the net, racking up a whopping nine total blocks, four of them solo, to continue proving herself as a scoring maven. Additionally,
Meg Brackhan put up five digs on her own, while
Tylah Yeomans also assisted a pair of blocks.
UWF used a number of sustained runs to put Union away early to make this another celebratory Silent Set Night. Per the team's tradition, the teams and fans cheer silently until the Argos score their eighth point of the first set in honor of the one in eight Americans affected by hearing loss and the digit combination of former setter and current assistant coach
Taylor Vaneekeren's jersey number of 17. Leading 4-1, Vongkasemsiri pushed the hosts closer to audible cheering with a block, her second of the day and back-to-back kills, before a bad set by Union brought the UWF Field House to a roar. Leading by seven, that was basically all the cushion the Argos needed to keep the Bulldogs at arm's length for the rest of the frame.
In the second set, the Argos already had nine on the board before Union scratched back a kill. Moulton opened it with an ace before a Bulldog error and a solo block by Vongkasemsiri. The freshman from Murfreesboro, Tenn., then followed up another block with a pair of kills before Moulton served another ace. Flanagain and Vongkasemsiri proceeded to split a block before the former scored a kill of her own and Breazeale added another to go up 9-0. Once again, the set was sealed with an early UWF run.
Union earned its first lead of the day by scoring the first kill of the third set, which Flanagain quickly removed with a kill before an error gave the Argos the lead for good. Flanagain and Deslatte then teamed up on a block before Yeomans scored a kill to make it four unanswered. After Union closed within 14-10 on a 4-0 run of its own, UWF got the ball back via service error. Deslatte and Yeomans teamed up on a block before Deslatte registered another kill and Breazeale served up an ace. Moments after a
Taylor Teaman ace, the Lady Bulldogs scored one last time on a kill by setter Ashley Pruitt to narrow it to 21-14 before another error gave serve back to the Argos for the final time. As Yeomans served, Vongkasemsiri ended this one with an exclamation point as she scored three consecutive kills off assists by another freshman,
Olivia Kelly.
UWF is back at it tomorrow afternoon at 1 pm at home against Christian Brothers for Youth Day. All youth will receive free admission to the match and a free autograph signing with the team will take place afterward.
For more information, please visit GoArgos.com or follow the program at @UWFVolleyball on Facebook, X and Instagram.
