The South Alabama Jaguars women’s volleyball team held its annual Red vs. Blue intrasquad match on Friday night at Jag Gym, with the Red Team coming from behind to secure a 2-1 victory.
Megan Smith and Cambria Gaier led the Red Team offensively, each recording nine kills. For the Blue Team, Sarah Gooch and Dalayla Blackwell each contributed eight kills.
In the opening set, the Blue Team maintained control and won 25-20, with Gooch leading in kills and Bri Wilson registering 10 digs on defense. The Red Team responded strongly in the second set, taking seven of the first eight points and eventually winning 25-13 after strong performances from Smith and Gaier.
The deciding third set saw momentum shift multiple times. The Blue Team built an early lead, but the Red squad rallied from a four-point deficit at match point (24-20) to score six straight points for a 26-24 win. Maradith O’Gorman started the run with a kill, Addison Hurst added an ace, and Smith teamed up with Alexa Strandberg for a block to seal the comeback.
Head coach Jesse Ortiz commented on his team’s performance: “I thought our group played hard. I liked the play of the defense in general. I felt everyone was getting acclimated to that part of the game pretty well. Usually with us at the beginning of the year, that’s one of the things I look at. I think we have a lot of physicality and we have a long way to go with some of the high errors we had, but that’s the reason we have these types of matches, so we can work those things out. All-in-all, I thought they played pretty well. People are fighting for jobs, so it’s an awesome thing to watch them compete.”
Ortiz also addressed areas for improvement ahead of upcoming matches: “I liked our serve-receive for the most part tonight. I thought at times there was a little bit of a break down here or there. That’s really what it’s going to come down to for us; our serve and pass game, and our ability to not only impact and make less serving errors, but also less reception errors from our opponent. That’s going to be the gauge for us when we start the season.”
South Alabama will next travel to Tallahassee for an exhibition match against Florida State on August 23 before starting its regular season with games against Baylor on August 29 and LSU on August 30 in Baton Rouge.
For further updates about South Alabama Volleyball, fans can follow @SouthAlabamaVB on Twitter or visit USAJaguars.com.
