JACKSONVILLE – Jacksonville State volleyball got a huge Conference USA win over Florida International on Saturday at the Pete Mathews Coliseum. The Gamecocks took down the Panthers for their first conference win of the season.
 
Jax State (8-19, 1-13) lost the first set of the match before winning the next three over the Panthers (6-21, 4-10). The Gamecocks had 61 kills, 56 digs, 55 assists, 10 blocks, and seven aces in the home win. The Gamecocks also had a .282 hit percentage as a squad.
 
"There's pride in how hard they played today when they could've went away and things weren't comfortable," head coach Derek Schroeder said. "They just decided as a group they were going to play really hard and support each other, so I'm very prideful in that and how hard they work for each other."
 
Kayla Williams led Jax State with 25 kills on 49 attacks. Williams also had a team-high five service aces. Caty Havekost was second on the team in kills with 14 and Sanni Rantanen added 10, respectively. Rantanen led the way in blocks with six. Ellie Garrett had a double-double in the game with 42 assists and 10 digs. Garrett tallied eight kills and three blocks.
 
Madison Konopka had a team-best 12 digs against the Panthers. Brooklyn Schiffli, Luci Wilkinson, and Garrett all had 10 digs.
 
"The things that we worked on in practice, not technique, not skills, just we're not going to rely on the other team giving us points," Schroeder added. "We're going to go out here and earn as many as we can and not hope that they give us eight, nine, or 10. That was that match today, so I was very very happy with how hard they worked to earn points."
 
The Gamecocks next two matches will be at New Mexico State on Nov. 8-9. The matches will be streaming on ESPN+ and live stats will be available at JaxStateSports.com.
 
To stay up-to-date with the Gamecocks, follow their Twitter (@JaxStateVB), Instagram (@JaxStateVB), and Facebook (Jacksonville State Volleyball) accounts.