ALBANY, GA - The Allen University volleyball team won their final three matches at the 2023 SIAC Crossover tournament in Albany, GA over the weekend as they finished 3-2 at the event.
Allen rolled to a three-set dominating win over SIAC West foe Kentucky State on Friday evening in their third match of the day. AU then came out and surprised Miles College Saturday morning rallying back to stun the Bears in five sets. Miles won the first two sets 25-16 and 25-17 before Allen came back to dominate set three 25-14, take set four 25-19 and then win a thrilling fifth 15-11 for their second SIAC win.
AU then grabbed their third straight win at the Crossover defeating Central State 26-24, 25-23, and 25-22.
AU 3, KSU 0
Allen won a thrilling first set 27-25 before crushing the Thorobreds 25-11 in the second and controlling the third for a 25-19 win. Allen piled up 36 kills in the match and hit .206 on the attack led by a massive 13 kills on inly 2 errors in the second to hit a whopping .379.
Leading the Lady Jackets were sophomore OH
Maliyah Spencer and junior middle
Taylor Lawrence as each recorded 8 kills apiece with Lawrence leading the team on a .583 attack percentage. Senior setter
Kayla Chambliss led AU with 17 assists along with 9 digs and an ace while fellow setter, freshman
Jayda Woodson tallied 10 assists with 4 digs.
Freshman libero
Myra Lopez collected 12 digs and 3 assists with an ace while senior OH
Natalia Maciejewska led the team with an impressive 5 aces by using her "jump serve" along with 9 digs. Senior middle
Marlaysia Westbrook also played well recording 6 kills, 4 blocks and two aces.
AU 3, Miles 2
In the fourth match of the tournament Saturday morning, Allen registered their largest comeback in years. Miles (4-8, 2-4 SIAC) didn't know what hit them as the Yellow Jackets tallied 41 kills in the final three sets alone and 58 for the match hitting .139 including 18 kills on a .227 attack % in the 4th set. freshman hitter
Tahmiah Lawson led Allen with a career-high of 18 kills while Westbrook added 11 kills and 3 blocks.
Chambliss also had a monster game as the setter tallying 29 assists, 7 kills and three aces while Woodson added 18 assists and six digs.
Lopez then registered a season-high 43 digs along 5 asst, 2 aces and a kill while
Dacia Lowery and Lawrence combined for 10 kills with Lawrence and
Sydney Ross combining for 7 blocks.
AU 3, CSU 0
In the final match of the event, AU was led by 36 kills in the match hitting .135 including an impressive 16 kills in the third set to clinch it hitting .308.
Leading the Jackets was Spencer with 10 kills (.389) and Lawson with 9 kills while fellow freshman
Dacia Lowery also put down six kills.
Leading the way in assists was Chambliss with 16 and 7 digs along with 5 kills while Woodson had nine assists. Lopez also recorded 10 digs and 3 assists. Westbrook then played a solid game and led the way with 4 aces and 3 blocks with 2 kills and 5 digs.
In earlier matches on Friday, the Yellow Jackets fell in 3 sets to defending SIAC Champs Spring Hill College while Tuskegee came back to beat AU in four sets Friday afternoon, 25-21, 19-25, 19-25, and 22-25.
Allen is now 8-6 on the season and 3-6 in the conference and will next return to Columbia to battle rival Benedict on Thursday at 6 pm.
