ALBANY — Valdosta State’s volleyball team needed a balanced performance to survive against the Albany State Golden Rams Monday night. They received it with double digit kills from Irene Hannan, Ruthie King, Chelsea Logan, Jordan Allain and Kathrine Carter to leave Albany with a victory, 24-26, 25-21, 25-18, 19-25, 15-12. The tough win gives the Lady Blazers a 14-15 record on the season.
Hannan led the team in kills with 15, in addition to 14 digs. King also doubled up, with 14 kills and 12 digs. Laura Boos was on the floor all night with 20 digs to lead the team. Both Carter and Hannan were in on four blocks on the night and Lea Weber passed out 59 assists.
Early in the first set, the Lady Blazers found themselves in a hole. VSU had it tough to start, and fell behind, 12-8. After a timeout, however, behind Brittney Borg’s serve, the Lady Blazers scored five straight points to go ahead by one. Valdosta State carried the momentum to a three-point lead, 18-15, forcing a timeout from Albany State. The Golden Rams regained their composure during the timeout and fought back to make it 19-18. Albany State eventually pulled out the first set, 26-24.
In the second set, the Lady Blazers seemed to wake up a bit, as they roared past the Golden Rams to an early 13-8 lead. After building an 18-12 lead, Valdosta State saw Albany State rush back to within three, 19-16. The Lady Blazers would persevere, however, and win the set, 25-21, and tie the match.
Valdosta State raced out to a 14-8 lead in the third set. The Lady Blazers wouldn’t look back, and soared to a 25-18 win in the third.
After a strong start to the fourth set for the Lady Blazers, the Golden Rams rallied to tie the match at 13, then took a two-point lead, 16-14. For the rest of the fourth set, Albany State had an uncanny knack for finding the holes in VSU’s defense, and went on to win 25-19.
The Lady Blazers struck first in the set to steal the momentum from the Rams and the ruckus crowd. Valdosta State couldn’t keep serve, though, and the two teams continued to trade blows, point for point, to start the final set. The Lady Blazers led 8-7 when both teams switched sides. VSU scored the next point to make it 9-7 and force a timeout from ASU.
Allain hit the next kill to give the Blazers their first three-point lead of the set. ASU won the next point, then Valdosta State increased its lead to 13-9. Logan killed an assist from Weber to pull within one point of the victory. As they had all night, the Rams proved they would not go quietly. They scored three points to get to 14-12 before Hannan ended the match with a devastating kill down the line.
Carolina Ribeiro led the Rams in assists with 48, while Davisha Moore led in digs with 20, like Boos. Mya Snell and Eugenia King registered 14 and 12 kills, respectively, to lead ASU.
Local Sports
VSU beats Albany State in five
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