MONTICELLO, Ark. – After losing the first set 25-17, the Southern Arkansas volleyball team roared back to take the next three sets to secure the 3-1 match win over Arkansas-Monticello on the road on Thursday night at the Steelman Field House.
 
In that first set, the Lady Muleriders (8-4, 2-1 GAC) fell into an early 10-4 hole as the Cotton Blossoms' (5-9, 0-3 GAC) offensive attack was on-point early in the set. During that initial stretch, the Cotton Blossoms did not commit an attack error and collected six kills while capitalizing on a pair of errors by the Lady Muleriders. The quick start for UAM in that opening set would prove to be too much for SAU to overcome as the Cotton Blossoms maintained a comfortable lead en route to the 25-17 set win.
                                             
Despite the difficult set one loss, the Lady Muleriders would rally in the second set to even the match at one-all with a hard-fought 25-23 decision. The play in that second set was so tight that the score was tied on nine different occasions and the lead changed hands six times. The final tie and subsequent lead change came with the score 21-all. From there, the Lady Muleriders, thanks to consecutive kills from Hailey McNee and Lauren Woods, would grab the advantage with a 23-21 lead. Alternating points between the two teams eventually gave SAU the set.
 
Unlike the back-and-forth affair that was the second set, set three was handily controlled by the Lady Muleriders for the duration as there were no tie scores or lead changes. Kills from Amanda Monge, Courtney Geesing, and Cambria Martin to start the set gave SAU a quick 3-0 lead. The Lady Muleriders would then turn that modest lead into a dominating lead of 14-5 as they outscored the Cotton Blossoms 11-5 during that stretch. The Cotton Blossoms would rally late in the set and cut their deficit to three points 24-21, but a kill from Geesing secured the set and gave SAU a 2-1 lead in the match.
 
Set four would become the final set as the Lady Muleriders turned a 13-10 deficit into a 19-13 lead as they rattled off nine unanswered points. Spearheading much of the run was the devastating serve of Monge. Five times in that stretch Monge found the UAM side of the floor for service aces. For the match, Monge had six of the team's seven service aces.
 
The Cotton Blossoms would eventually break Monge's serve but the Lady Muleriders still maintained a comfortable lead. Once again, UAM would make the set interesting late as they went on a 5-2 run to pull to within three points, 22-19. The rally would end there as the Lady Muleriders would capture the next three points to take the set and the match.
 
Statistically, the Lady Muleriders were led in hitting by Tolbert with 13 kills. McNee and Geesing were right behind with 12 and 11 kills, respectively. Gabby Clark played all four sets and paced the SAU offense with 43 assists. As a team, SAU totaled 69 digs with Woods leading the way with 18 digs. Geesing, Clark, and McNee also netted double-digit digs as they each had double-doubles.
 
SAU will next be in action on Monday, September 30 as they will take a break from conference play and hit the road to play a tri-match against Williams Baptist and Bethel University. First match is scheduled for 3 p.m.