Women's Volleyball 9/24/2014 9:47:00 AM

Volleyball Drops Road Match To Charleston Southern

Box Score

CHARLESTON, S.C. – The Savannah State volleyball team made the quick trip to Charleston, S.C. on Tuesday to face off against regional rival Charleston Southern in the first of two matches scheduled this season.

The Lady Tigers fell in straight sets to the Lady Bucs, but not without some fight. Historically, SSU is winless against the Lady Bucs, falling to 0-22 in the record books in this decade.

As the Lady Tigers, under new head coach Jolanta Graham, continue to build the program progress is evident in the details of the statistics.

When SSU took on Charleston Southern last year they fell in straight sets, and the highest amount of points they managed to score was 13 in the second set.

In the opening set of Tuesday's game, SSU looked to be repeating last year's loss as the Lady Bucs' cruised to a 25-10 victory.

Into the second set, however, the Lady Tigers opened a 3-0 run on kills from newcomer Zariya Thomas that cut the Lady Bucs' lead to 6-5. A few minutes later, kills from Gabrielle Nathaniel and Justice Dilworth cut CSU's lead to 10-7 and kept SSU in the fight.

The Lady Bucs were unfazed as they extended their lead to 13-8 with three straight kills from Siraya Windsor.

Later, SSU trailed 12-16 and cut that lead down to two points with back-to-back kills from Thomas on sets from Caitlynn Masoe. Two costly SSU errors again widen the scoring gap, forcing SSU to take a timeout.

CSU was leading 21-16 as Thomas served up two points on attack errors from Windsor, forcing the home team to take a timeout.

A service error from Meredith Parrott moved SSU to a four point deficient at 19-23. Nathaniel then served up two points, with attack errors from Windsor, to move SSU to within two points of the home team's lead, 21-23.

Windsor rebounded with a kill for the set point, forcing the Lady Tigers to take pause. Out of the timeout, SSU newcomer Elexius Harris recorded a kill to keep the set alive, but an attack error from the Lady Tigers sealed up the 25-22 win for CSU.

Thomas led the Lady Tigers in the hard fought set with five kills. Windsor registered six kills, as the Lady Bucs led 2-0 into the final set.

Charleston Southern opened the third set with an 8-3 run, but SSU bounced back into the game with a 4-0 run on three straight service points from Nathaniel that cut the home team's lead to 8-7.

The Lady Bucs pushed back out to a 13-8 lead, moments later and looked to be gaining all their momentum back. Dilworth then opened a 3-0 run with a service ace. SSU cut the home team's lead to 16-13.

Out of a timeout, Windsor served up two points to lift CSU to a 20-14 lead. Down the final stretch, the Lady Bucs took advantage of several SSU errors for a 25-17 set win and the sixth match win of the season.

Thomas led the Lady Tigers with six kills in the match. Alexis Washington led in digs with 11. Parrott led the Lady Bucs with 10 kills, while Taylor Allman led in digs with 14.

SSU falls to 3-11 on the season. They open Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) play this weekend in Florida, beginning in Tallahassee at Florida A&M on Friday. They continue on Sunday with a match against Bethune-Cookman in Daytona.

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