Playing only its second game at home this season, Texas Southern took advantage of its surroundings and knocked off Southern 3-0 Sunday afternoon in a key SWAC match-up at the H&PE Arena.
"We all came together as a team," said head coach Jocelyn Adams. "We had a lot of adversity to overcome and it all came together this evening."
The Tigers came out on fire to open the first set with a 10-6 surge which forced Southern to call a pair of timeouts quickly. TSU remained on fire after that point with a team effort as the Tigers outscored SU 15-5 en route to a 25-11 decision.
Set two saw Southern jump out to an early 7-3 lead and led over the next several plays until Alexis Austin's service ace and pair of kills turned the tide and gave TSU a 12-11 lead. The contest went back-and-forth as there were a total of seven ties and five lead changes from that point as the contest was tied at 24-all after a kill by Arabella Hall from Southern. TSU wo  uld ultimately close out the set with a 26-24 margin following two attack errors by SU down the stretch.
The Tigers went on an 11-4 surge after the contest was tied 9-9 in set three to lead 20-13. However, SU refused to go away as several attack errors by TSU sparked an 8-1 SU run and a 21-all score late in the set. Breyanna York ended the drought with a timely kill followed by an SU attack error for a 23-21 lead but both teams traded kills for a 24-23 TSU margin. A match-ending kill by Austin put away all doubts of another set as TSU earned an important SWAC win over SU.
Austin topped TSU with 14 kills while York finished with 22 assists. Valencia Grayson led all defenders with 21 digs and four service aces.
TSU is back in action tomorrow evening against Grambling State at 6:30 p.m. inside the H&PE Arena.
