JACKSONVILLE – The Jacksonville State volleyball team secured a win in its home opener taking straight sets from Alcorn State on Wednesday night inside Pete Mathews Coliseum.
The Gamecocks (3-6) hit a combined .364 in the sweep (25-15, 25-12, 25-10) of the Lady Braves. The nightcap victory for JSU followed an earlier loss in the day to North Dakota, who was making a return visit to Jacksonville after the Gamecocks made the trek to Grand Forks, N.D. a season ago.
Sophomore
Mackenzie Rombach's kill in the opening frame pushed Jax State ahead, 7-6, and the Gamecocks hardly looked back. A couple of 5-0 runs gave JSU a 23-14 advantage late in the first. Freshman
Kaylee Frear put away two late kills leading to the 25-15 set win.
Jax State surged out to an 8-0 lead to begin the second set, powered by a trio of kills from junior
Charis Ludtke. The Hamburg, Germany, native finished the match with eight kills, trailing only fellow junior
Allyson Zuhlke who finished with a team-best 14. Alcorn State responded cutting the margin the 13-10, until JSU took off on a 12-2 run to take the set, 25-12.
The Gamecocks hit their best offensively in the third and final frame with a .396 attack percentage en route to a 25-10 victory.
Behind Zuhlke and Ludtke, Frear finished with six kills followed by Rombach (5) and freshman
Sadie Anderson (4) in what was a balanced offensive attack all night.
Freshman
Rachel Perucki stepped up to direct the offense dishing 22 assists against Alcorn, following a 19-assist morning versus North Dakota. On the defensive side,
Hannah Kirk ended the day with 30 digs, sending her over 100 for the season and 900 for her career.
J'Nae Fraser and
Abby Farr also played keys roles for the Gamecock back row, while freshman
Aspen Dangren became the ninth JSU newcomer to make her Gamecock debut in 2016.
"I thought we played really hard," said JSU head coach
Terry Gamble. "I think the more we learn, the better we're going to get. I felt like Allyson (Zuhlke), Rachel (Perucki) and Hannah (Kirk) did a great job tonight."
The Gamecocks make Pete Mathews Coliseum home for a while with four home matches this weekend as part of the Jax State Invitational, and four more next weekend in the Gamecock Classic. All matched will feature live stats available on JSUGamecockSports.com and admission is free to all home JSU Volleyball matches.
