VALDOSTA — The Valdosta State volleyball team is set to continue its run in the Gulf South Conference Championship tournament in Pensacola, Fla. at the campus of West Florida. With only six teams remaining in the tournament, the fifth seed Blazers are set to take on the fourth seed Montevallo Falcons at 5 p.m. ET on Friday, Nov. 17 in the first match of the second round.

West Florida went 15-1 in league play and earned hosting duties, while Alabama Huntsville earned the No. 2-seed, followed by Auburn Montgomery and Montevallo is the No. 4-seed. The top four seeds earned “byes” to Pensacola.

Valdosta State (19-13, 10-6 GSC) recently defeated in-state rival, West Georgia, in the first round of the GSC Championship at The Complex Tuesday night, 3-1. The win not only advanced VSU to the second round of the conference tournament but possibly gave the Blazers the final victory over the Wolves as West Georgia is set to move up to Division I next season.

In the four-set victory on Tuesday Evening, the Blazers collectively hit .228 for the night with 49 kills and 16 errors in 145 swings while holding the UWG offense to .086 on 36 kills and 23 miscues in 152 attempts. Junior Jojo Smith had a massive night against the Wolves, tallying a match-high 18 kills for a season-best, a season-best four service aces and a season-high in points with 22. She also recorded her ninth double-double of the year with 11 digs and passed the 900 career kills mark with 914 currently. Junior Kaia Baker and graduate student Mallory Roney also had season-bests in digs with Baker tallying 33 at libero and Roney recording 20. Junior Audrey Bennett ended the match with 39 assists while junior Mackenzie Murray scored three of the Blazers six total blocks.

Prior to the match on Tuesday, the Gulf South Conference announced the All-GSC teams as well as the yearly awards.

Both junior Christina Pettigrew and Audrey Bennett received honors for Valdosta State with Pettigrew being named to the first team and Bennett being named to the second team. This marks the first time the Blazers have had multiple all-conference selections under head coach Kaleigh Zoucha, and the first time since 2015 with multiple all-conference honorees. In program history, VSU has had 23 selections to the all-conference teams in volleyball including this season.

As a team, VSU ranks second nationally and first in the GSC in total attacks (4,416) while also being ranked first in the conference in attacks per set (37.42). Continuing with the offensive trend, the Blazers ranked second in the league in kills (1,431), while also ranking third in kills per set with the team averaging 12.13 kills a frame. Defensively, Valdosta State leads the conference in total blocks (245), digs (1,927) as well as digs per set (16.33).

VSU is making its 18th appearance in the Gulf South Conference Championship as the team won the tournament title once in 2014. The Blazers competed in the 2022 tournament, falling 3-1 to Auburn Montgomery in the opening round at The Complex. This season marks the first time the Blazers will be competing in the second round of the GSC Championship since 2018 when the Blazers fell took on Montevallo on Nov. 9, 2018.

Montevallo enters the tournament as the fourth seed with a 12-17 overall record and a 10-6 mark in the GSC. Montevallo recently defeated VSU in the regular season finale last Saturday, 3-1 to claim the four-seed in the tournament. In that match, the Falcons prevailed through excellent defense with Casey Hendrixson, Colton Thompson, Macy Martin and Kalin Duncan all having double-digit digs, combining for 65 of the Falcons’ 91 total digs despite three Blazers scoring double-digit kills.