MOBILE, Ala. (September 28, 2021) – The Spring Hill College (SHC) volleyball team saw its 14-match winning streak snapped at the hands of the 15
th-ranked University of West Florida (UWF) Argonauts on Tuesday night at the Arthur R. Outlaw Recreation Center by the score of 3-0 (25-18; 25-13; 25-21).
The first set opened in a dogfight with the teams knotted at 10-10 before UWF rolled out to a 20-11 advantage. The Badgers valiantly fought back to make it a 23-18 deficit, but the damage had been done.
Set Two got away from the Badgers early with UWF taking an 18-5 lead behind commanding play by their front line at the net before cruising to the 25-13 final.
The raucously partisan Badger crowd refused to give up on their heroes, however, and SHC rallied from a 10-4 deficit in the third set to claw out a 17-15 lead with back-to-back aces from sophomore
Emily Weinzapfel. UWF bounced back to tie things up 17-17, but SHC would regain an 18-17 advantage. From there, the Argos would win the final sprint to the tape in a 25-21 win.
The Argos (15-1) held the Badgers to a -.029 (18-22-140) attack percentage as no Badger earned more than three kills, but the Badgers did haul in eight blocks (3-10) with
Olivia Peyton (1-2) and
Kassandra Fairly (0-3) stopping three shots each.
Jessica Fairly handed out 10 assists while
Mikayla Boyer controlled 15 of the 68 digs by SHC.
UWF hit for .187 (49-21-150) as Veresia Yon collected 12 kills. The Argos made eight blocks (2-12) with Jenna Zydio making six (2-4). Taylor Vaneekeren distributed 37 assists and Ashton Marshall earned 22 of the 85 UWF digs on the night.
The Badgers (16-5; 10-0 SIAC) will now take a week off to prepare for hosting the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) West Division Cluster at the Arthur R. Outlaw Recreation Center on October 7-9 beginning with a match versus the Miles College Golden Bears (0-16, 0-10 SIAC) at 6 p.m. on Thursday, October 7.
