BATON ROUGE, La. – Texas Southern advanced in the 2015 SWAC Women's Volleyball Tournament with a 3-1 (25-23, 15-25, 21-25, 25-15, 15-11) win over Alabama A&M at the Clifford Seymour Gymnasium Saturday.
Down two sets to one, the Lady Tigers (16-18) used a 10-3 set closing run to knot the match up in the fourth set. Texas Southern looked like it would run away with the final frame, starting the stanza with a 5-1 run but Alabama A&M didn't go quietly, coming back from an 11-6 deficit to tie it. The Lady Tigers regrouped, scoring the final five points of the deciding period to win.
Robyn Shannon led the way for Texas Southern in a hotly-contested first set, landing seven kills on 10 attempts – a .700 attack percentage – in the frame. Shannon closed out the period with a kill from an Asia Howard assist.
Alabama A&M stormed out ahead in the second set, using a 10-2 run to go up 14-4 on the West No. 1 seed Tigers. Texas Southern cut that deficit down to five with a 7-1 run of its own. The Bulldogs were undeterred, closing the set with a 10-5 run. TSU committed more errors than kills (9-7) in the period.
The Bulldogs kept the momentum in the third period, as an early Tigers spurt didn't hold up for long. Errors plagued Texas Southern again, as Alabama A&M put together a 5-0 run while things were tied at 17 – three of those points were due to TSU miscues – that helped wrap up the third set, setting the stage for the finale.
Shannon had a team-high 16 kills and added 12 dugs, Kali Fluke notched 11 kills, seven blocks, three assists and two digs. Nicole Robinson had 10 kills, and Asia Howard and Chelsea Thompson combined for 48 kills (26 and 22, respectively).
Ashundria McNeal put up 20 kills, 17 digs and two blocks for the Bulldogs. Savannah Blackiston added 15 kills 13 digs and two aces. Megan Butler notched 41 assists and 11 digs. The loss ends the year for Alabama A&M while Texas Southern faces Alabama State in the second semifinal.
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