South Alabama’s women’s volleyball team began its Sun Belt Conference schedule with a 3-1 victory over Troy on Friday at Jag Gym. The Jaguars, now 6-6 overall and 1-0 in conference play, were led by Cambria Gaier, who recorded her eighth match of the season with double-digit kills, finishing with 13 kills and two aces.
Maradith O’Gorman contributed 10 kills without an error on 20 attacks, along with an ace, seven digs, and six block assists. Sarah Gooch added nine kills while Eva Dittmar, Elyse Heffner, and Alexa Strandberg each had five. Strandberg also led the team defensively with seven blocks. The Jaguars held a significant advantage in blocking, totaling 12.5 compared to Troy’s five.
Briana Wilson led all players in digs with 14, marking her eleventh match this season with at least 13 digs.
Troy (2-7, 0-1 SBC) was paced by Amiah Butler’s 17 kills.
Head coach Jesse Ortiz commented on the result: “We respect Troy a ton. We always seem to have knock-out-drag-out battles with them. It seems like the home team’s environment seems to help out. (Troy head coach) Josh Lauer does a great job with his group and you know they are going to be formattable. We had great practices this week, and I felt our players were really into the match. It was good to see us in command for most of the match.”
Ortiz also discussed the team’s offensive approach: “We have some youngsters out there and some veterans. We have a lot of arm speed, which sometimes will get you in trouble when people start hitting it 31-feet, instead of the 29.6, but we want to make sure we spread the ball around, and that everyone gets involved in the party. It’s a full team effort when we see that, which is a little different than we’ve played it in the past, but something we’re really proud of and like.”
Senior setter Anna Loberg reflected on preparation: “It all comes down to what we do in practice, and we came to practice this week ready to start Sun Belt Conference play strong. We wanted to master the little things in the game and follow our game plan in the match, which paid off.”
Loberg also spoke about setting for multiple attackers: “Everyone is a hitter and everyone is a threat. I can trust anyone at anytime to put the ball away, which is really special.”
The teams will meet again Saturday for their second conference matchup.
