TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - Faulkner (6-10, 1-5 SSAC) dug deep and earned a much-needed win via sweep (25-19, 25-14, 26-24) of Stillman (2-8, 1-1 HBCUAC) at Birthright Alumni Hall on Tuesday night. The Lady Eagles snapped a five-match skid with the result, their first win in two weeks since a sweep of Pensacola Christian on September 9.
Faulkner had an answer for every Tiger run, as it collected 50 kills to Stillman's 28 and outhit the hosts .311 to .220, taking every major statistical category but blocks and errors. Three Lady Eagles, Madison Martin, Riley Deem and Allyse Rudolph, tied for the match lead in kills with 11 apiece. Martin tied career highs for kills and hitting percentage in the process, kills previously set versus this season Shawnee State and PCC and percentage set last season at Point. Deem registered a new career high after tying her previous best of 10 kills on Saturday at UT Southern. The trio hit .600, .471 and .250, respectively.
Kaleigh Moss hit seven kills on 15 swings for a .400 night. Charlee Jordan scored six and Kendall Rice added three. Mandi Hart dished out 24 assists and dug nine attacks. Rudolph added six scoops and Jaylyn Strength five. Ellie Cyr assisted 11 kills, and Chasity Broadhead added seven assists. Addison Smith got her first career start while subbing in at libero for Strength in the third frame, also a first for the freshman from Milton, Fla. She earned a career-best 11 digs and tied her high mark of four aces, also reached versus Stillman this season.
The first set was mostly even in terms of statistics and scores aside from a few Faulkner runs that proved to be the difference. Tied at seven, Deem and Martin scored kills, Rice hit a solo block and Anna Prempramot served up an ace. Rudolph then added back-to-back kills, off assists from Broadhead and Hart, after a Tiger kill by Raine Patterson to go up 13-8. Clinging to a 22-19 lead after a pair of Stillman points on attack errors, a service error gave the ball back to the Eagles ahead of a bad set for set point, and Strength scored via ace to put her team up 1-0.
The Lady Eagles stepped on the gas in the second frame with 17 kills while holding Stillman to just five and soundly winning the hitting battle .353 to .087. Trailing 7-5, Faulkner broke off a massive 19-4 run to get it to set point. The guests tied the set with kills by Martin and Moss, took the lead with a Patterson error and went up by two on a solo kill from Martin. Following a Patterson kill to get back within one, the Eagles got the score back on a service error by Shelby Morris. Smith showed her prowess versus the Tigers once again, as she fired three consecutive aces to put her team up 13-8. Though Smith's luck ran out on the next rally, Rudolph got the side-out with a kill and Jordan and Deem followed, all off Hart dimes. Leading 24-11, the Tigers got three points back to push the Lady Eagles, but Jordan stepped up with a kill off the assist from Cyr to go up 2-0.
The Tigers used a pair of 3-0 runs to lead 9-6. After Faulkner strung together a 6-0 lead to flip it to a 13-10 lead, Stillman tied it back up with three straight rallies won and even more to eventually own set point at 24-22, ready to take its first set over Faulkner in program history. A service error put the ball back on the Lady Eagles' side, and they delivered as Rudolph scored a kill thanks to a block error to tie the set, Deem scored one to put Faulkner back in the lead and Rudolph added her 11th kill of the contest to put a bow on things as the Lady Eagles took a 2-0 season lead over the Tigers with one more meeting left to go.
The Lady Eagles return home and resume conference play on Friday, September 26, at 6 pm against Point.
