PENSACOLA, Fla. – The Spring Hill College (SHC) court volleyball team opened the 2019 season versus two Top 25 programs on Friday and suffered two hard-fought losses to the No. 24 University of West Florida (UWF) Argonauts (1-1) and the No. 3 Western Washington University Vikings (3-0) in the Springhill Suites Invitational at the UWF Field House.
In the morning match against the hosting Argonauts, SHC took a 3-0 loss, but in close 25-20, 25-22, 25-22 decisions. Sophomore middle hitter
Kassandra Fairly racked up 10 kills with four blocks while senior libero
Cassidi Sterrett corralled 17 digs and senior setter
Emmarose Neibert dished out 17 assists.
As a team, SHC managed just a .167 (33-14-114) attack percentage against a stout UWF defense that swatted away eight blocks. The Argos built a .281 kill percentage (52-16-128), but not without the Badgers blocking eight shots and hauling in 51 digs.
Freshman libero
Taylor Fontenelle of Spanish Fort had a strong collegiate debut with nine digs and two services aces while fellow freshman outside hitter
Mikayla Boyer from Covington, La., pounded out nine kills with eight digs.
The night cap saw SHC battle back to stun the Vikings by taking the first set 25-16, but Western Washington responded by running off the next three sets by the scores 25-15, 25-17 and 25-16.
Fairly continued her strong start to her second season with 13 kills and two block assists as Neibert handed out 22 more assists and Sterrett rounded up 14 of the 53 digs by the Badgers. The Vikings held SHC to a .109 (32-18-128) attack percentage while building a .319 (59-16-135) average for themselves. SHC stopped four attempts at the net compared to seven for Western Washington. Fontenelle and senior outside hitter
Payton Gidney each recorded two aces for the Badgers as the Vikings tallied eight aces.
The road doesn't get any easier for the Badgers (0-2) on Saturday as they open the day versus 13
th-ranked Wheeling University at 10 a.m. followed by Florida Tech at 5:30 p.m.
