JACKSONVILLE – On the night the Jacksonville State volleyball team celebrated its 40th anniversary, the Gamecocks reeled off a comeback to remember overcoming an 0-2 deficit to down UT Martin 15-11 in the fifth.
 
Jax State (20-11, 6-6 Ohio Valley) went five sets for the sixth time in 12 conference matches with its comeback over UTM. The Skyhawks fell to 5-7 in OVC play, and remain winless at Pete Mathews Coliseum since 2011.
 
Entering the day, only 14 Division I schools had amassed 20 wins in 2017, but that club grew by at least one on Friday as JSU notched its first 20-win campaign since the NCAA tournament team in 2009.
 
Defense highlighted both sides as JSU won despite an .097 overall hitting mark. However, JSU limited UTM to just a .103 clip. Junior Mackenzie Rombach matched a career-high with nine blocks, followed by Kim Krutsinger and Kaylee Frear with five apiece to lead JSU to 15 team stops.
 
Senior Hannah Kirk led a defensive back row that collected 79 total digs during the five-set affair. Kirk finished with 19, just ahead of senior Jennifer Hart's 15. Overall, 10 different Gamecocks recorded multiple digs.
 
Frear also continued her mid-season offensive surge, tying Allyson Zuhlke with 13 kills while Charis Ludtke put away 11 attacks of her own. Sophomore Rachel Perucki dished 27 assists, her second 25-assist match in the last three outings, while Hart setip 17 successful swings.
 
"This team never quit," said Terry Gamble following the thrilling victory. "I loved how hard they kept playing, and I thought we got a big boost when we put Kennedy (Powell) and Ashley (Clingan) in. This atmosphere was great tonight, it was a huge crowd and they kept us in the match. Thank you to all the crowd, our cheerleaders and Hardcorps."
 
Tied at 16, a couple of attack errors by JSU opened the door for a 7-1 run for UTM to take the opening set, 25-20. The second set saw an almost identical swing as UTM used another 6-1 run at 16-16, which became a 9-3 stretch to win the second and grab a commanding 2-0 match advantage.
 
JSU opened the third with a 7-1 lead, but quickly found itself ahead just one at 10-9. At 17-16, JSU front line began to create havoc forcing four straight attack errors to go up 21-16, and move on to a 25-20 win. The fourth fourth, JSU flipped the script to finish on its own 9-3 run started by a kill from Rombach when JSU led 16-15.
 
In the fifth, JSU opened its offense for a match-best .348 percentage with 10 kills on 23 swings. Ludtke had four of her 11 kills in the final frame, including the winning point, while Rombach added three more blocks. JSU created a 12-6 advantage before holding on to the 15-11 victory.
 
JSU continues play in the friendly confines of The Pete next weekend, where the Gamecocks are 10-1 on the season, hosting Eastern Kentucky and Morehead State.