Aug. 25, 2006
PENSACOLA, Fla. - Southern Indiana put their best foot forward today to defeat host West Florida 3-0 (30-24, 30-13, 30-27). Melissa Wolter's Argonauts will look ahead to tomorrow for two more matches as they look to rebound from a difficult day one of the UWF Comfort Inn-vitational.
West Florida struggled offensively. They posted an attack percentage of -.016. Southern Indiana wasn't much better. The Eagles had a .190 attack percentage in the defensive battle. Naiara Fernandes posted eight kills and 11 digs to lead UWF. Melina Pereira added 10 assists and nine digs. Southern Indiana's Emily Ryan and Molly Rahman each had 11 kills.
West Florida jumped out to a 6-1 lead in game one. The Eagles quickly got back into the game. They took a 12-11 lead on three service aces by Cara Keever. With the score tied at 14, USI out scored UWF 7-2 to take a 21-16 lead. Two service aces by Fernandes and one from Judit Vass cut the lead to two. That was as close as UWF would get in game one.
Game two started like game one ended. Southern Indiana dominated most of the game. They broke a 4-4 tie and out scored UWF 26-9 the rest of the way.
Game three was much more competitive. Despite trailing for most of game three, UWF attempted a late comeback. The Argos were down 26-21 and rattled off six unanswered points to take the lead. A Kill by Christina Johnson and five USI errors put UWF back in business. Rahman ended the surge with a kill and Keever's ace gave the Eagles match point. Rahman finished a Stephanie Wilson set for the match winner
West Florida goes to 0-2 and Southern Indiana improves to 2-0. The Argos play Northwood (Mich.) tomorrow at 1:30 pm and Edinboro at 6:00 pm. Here are other final scores from today UWF Comfort Inn-vitational:
Lewis 3 Edinboro 0
Ashland 3 South Dakota 2
Lewis 3 Eckerd 0
Northwood 3 West Georgia 1
Southern Indiana 3 Edinboro 1
South Dakota 3 West Florida 2
Eckerd 3 Northwood 1
Lewis 3 Edinboro 0
Southern Indiana 3 West Florida 0
Ashland 3 West Georgia 0
