MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Faulkner completed the 22nd annual Faulkner Invitational in style at Tine Davis Gymnasium on the tail end of the first week of fall classes, settling some scores against teams that have given it fits in past seasons on the way to finishing the weekend undefeated for the first time in program history. It was the Lady Eagles' best result in the tournament since a 3-1 finish in 2018, the season in which they advanced for the first time to the NAIA national tournament, and their first 4-0 weekend since the 2019 Bryan Bash.
Molly Presnell showed once again why she was brought in from UAH, tallying four double-doubles in as many contests. She kicked off the Lady Eagles' docket against Southeastern with her most successful outing, scoring 22 digs and 14 kills with a .306 percentage.
Alyssa Stagner did the same except with assists and digs, her best performance coming in the Coastal Georgia match with 31 and 18, respectively.
Alexis McInroy tallied three double-doubles of her own, with a tournament high of 15 kills and 17 digs for a .467 outing versus Reinhardt.
Haven Owings claimed double-digit kills in two contests, and
Mandi Hart turned in double-digit digs in Friday's contests with six total aces and a high of 14 scoops and 22 assists against Reinhardt.
Faulkner 3, Southeastern 1 (25-18, 25-18, 25-27, 25-14)
The Lady Eagles led Southeastern in every team category but one, and dominated in aces and blocks by the margins of 9-3 and 12-2, respectively. They held the visitors to a .056 total hitting percentage and a negative mark in the fourth set while forcing 10 errors apiece in the second and fourth to accomplish the program's first win over the Fire since the 2015 iteration of this event.
Faulkner scored nine of the last 12 points and six of the last seven to finish off the first frame. The six began with a Fire service error after the Lady Eagles' lead was cut to 18-17. Kills from
Victoria Wheeler, Owings, McInroy and Presnell, including one as a response to a Faulkner service error, ended the beginning set. Faulkner scored six straight in the second to seemingly distance itself from a slim 11-9 advantage, started by a
Hannah Bryan kill and followed with five consecutive Fire errors. SEU eventually won seven of eight points to get within 21-18 before two errors, a Presnell kill and a McInroy ace sealed a 2-0 lead.
Down 15-6 in the third, Faulkner ran wild, scoring 12 of the next 14 points scored, including eight in a row to take an improbable 18-17 lead. Presnell kills sandwiched the run of eight that included two attack errors and four Hart aces, including three consecutively. SEU stormed back though, and after Faulkner tied it at both 24 and 25, two errors gave the frame to the Fire. Five of the nine Lady Eagle blocks came in the final period, however, with three of them coming from
Mallory Black, and eight of the last nine points of the game went to Faulkner. A Presnell block and kill provided the last two scores.
Faulkner 3, Reinhardt 2 (23-25, 25-15, 21-25, 25-22, 15-8)
Faulkner rode huge second, fourth and fifth sets to claim its first win across the net from the Eagles out of Waleska, Ga., since the 2012 Invitational. The host Eagles outhit their counterparts with a .257 percentage to the latter's .163, again forcing a negative mark in the final set and leading in all but one team stat.
Faulkner could not overcome an early deficit in the first period, but tried mightily, twice getting within one point. Then, down 12-8 in the following frame, Faulkner scored nine of the next 10 points to take a 17-13 lead, with two kills each from Black and Bryan in the span. Following a Wheeler kill to put Faulkner up 19-15, Presnell stepped behind the line and did not leave until the set's conclusion. Five of the last six points came via errors, two of them following McInroy blocks. The back-and-forth affair that was the third set ended when Reinhardt, which did not commit an error in the frame, scored four straight and seven of nine to go up 2-1.
Faulkner began to take charge by breaking open a 4-4 game with five straight points, via a service error, a Presnell kill, two Bryan aces and a block shared by Presnell and Wheeler. After Reinhardt rallied to eventually tie it on three occasions, an Owings kill, a Stagner ace and a block by Black and Owings put their team up 23-20, and kills from Stagner and Bryan, each in response to a Reinhardt point, sent the match to the fifth set. Faulkner responded to each Reinhardt tally and, with a 9-8 lead, benefited from five errors and another ace by Stagner to win the battle of Eagles.
Faulkner 3, Dillard 1 (21-25, 25-14, 25-18, 25-20)
Kicking of their Saturday slate, the Lady Eagles looked to keep the good times rolling against the visitors from New Orleans. In an evenly matched contest, however, it was the Bleu Devils that claimed the first set by scoring six of the last seven points after falling behind early. Down 5-4 in the second, Faulkner scored four straight and responded in a big way when Dillard pulled back to within one. The hosts claimed the next eight points with Stagner behind the service line, and Bryan's name was all throughout the run, contributing four scores via three kills and a block shared with Black. An Owings kill and a McInroy kill and ace tied the match.
The Lady Eagles broke open a tied third frame with six scores to go up 14-8 thanks to a scoring flurry from Wheeler, Presnell and Bryan. Dillard stormed back with six straight to tie it at 17, but after trading points, Faulkner scored the last seven thanks to four errors, including one on a serve to kickstart the run, a Hart ace and a pair of McInroy kills to get within one set of the win. Runs were harder to come by in the final frame, but Presnell smoked three offerings in Faulkner's last four scores, the last of which was in response to the Bleu Devils pulling within 24-20, to give her team its third win over Dillard in 10 tries.
Faulkner 3, Coastal Georgia 1 (22-25, 25-19, 25-15, 25-20)
Faulkner won most statistical battles in the Invitational's finale, holding Coastal Georgia to below .200 in each frame and a negative third to follow the program's first-ever defeat of the squad from Brunswick, Ga., in 2018. The hosts took a few brief leads in the first but lost control by ceding five straight to fall behind 20-17 in a set that began inauspiciously, as the opening point was scored by former Lady Eagle
Katie Jordan. However, all but two of Faulkner's points in the next set were scored in chunks, including the first five via two errors and Presnell and Owings kills to get a leg up on the Mariners. Stagner served two aces and assisted one of Wheeler's two kills in a four-point run to go up 20-12.
After two miscues and a kill and ace by Presnell early in the third to go up 5-1, Faulkner responded to a Mariner point with a massive 11-0 run that started with a service error. Five more errors helped the Lady Eagles' cause during
Sarah Boyd's service, in which she tallied an ace, got two kills apiece from Owings and McInroy and assisted two of the four. The run was enough to keep Coastal Georgia at arm's length even when it mustered a rally. In the clinching frame, a trio of three-point runs broke a 16-16 game, the first helped by a block from McInroy and
Julia Rice and Bryan's second ace of the set. McInroy stamped the second of the three with a kill and ace sandwiching a Mariner error, and after three by the opponents to pull within 22-20, Rice and Presnell kills to go with a block by Wheeler and Bryan wrapped up the historic day at Tine Davis.
Faulkner improves to 6-2 entering another four-game event, the FHU Labor Day Tournament. The Lady Eagles take on Fisk and Milligan on September 2 in Henderson, Tenn.
