The Lady Lions traveled to Auburn on Friday, Aug. 30, for the War Eagle Invitational.
Their first match on Friday was filled with high level competition against the Auburn Tigers. The Lions did have an early 10-4 lead in the first set, but the Tigers would go on a run to even the score. Both offense and defense held their own for the Lions, allowing them to go point for point during the rest of the set. The set ended with a 4 point difference in favor of the Tigers, 25-21.
Set two against the Tigers proved to be just as fierce. With roles reversing, the Tigers pulled out an early lead, at least until the Lions’ offense channeled their ruthless strength. Senior and outside hitter Brenna Tietz put down three kills. Transfer Jasmine Brooks, freshman Reese Ricketts and junior Hayley Martin earned two kills each, managing to even the playing field. Unfortunately, Auburn caught wind of an offensive streak, ending the set 25-21.
In the third and final set, the Lions held the early lead. This set highlighted the Lions’ offensive power, showing 17 kills. Auburn held their own, pretty much going point for point with UNA. The Tigers took their third set at 25-23, securing their win for the opening match.
For the match’s offense, both Brooks and Ricketts had a total of 8 kills. Martin put down 7 kills and 1 block and Tietz had 5 kills and 3 blocks.
In terms of assists, freshman Kinslee McGowan led with 13, followed by senior Elif Ozsoy’s 10, freshman Audrey Small’s 5 and Ricketts’ 3. McGowan led with 18 total digs, followed by Ozsoy and Small’s 15 digs each.
North Alabama’s second and last match of the day was against the Wofford Terriers. They opened up the first set hungry for a win. The team totaled 14 kills with Rickett contributing 5 alone. Wofford, not backing down, challenged the Lions point for point, but the Lions came out on top, 27-25.
The Terriers fought back to take the second and third sets, but the Lions were relentless to take the fourth, 25-17.
With both teams having taken 2 sets, the fifth was a ruthlessly intense battle. The set went point for point until the Terriers went on a four-point run, ending the game at 15-11.
With assistance from setters Ozsoy and McGowan, the offense earned 56 kills, collectively. Tietz secured 18 of those, Ricketts with 16, Brooks with 10 and Martin with 5. Tietz also attained 3 blocks, and Martin landed 2.
On the defensive side, the team achieved 47 digs, Ricketts leading with 15, closely followed by Ozsoy’s 13.
The following day, the Lions geared up for a highly exciting, competitive game against the Georgia Southern Eagles. North Alabama quickly took the first set with their highest window yet at 25-17. Following this, the second set did not come as easily as the first, but defense played a huge part in securing the Lions’ win, 26-24. Unfortunately, the Eagles went on a three-set streak. The sets ended 25-17, 25-18 and 15-9.
The Lions totaled 57 kills for the match, led by Ricketts’ 14. Tietz totaled 13 kills and 2 huge blocks on the outside. Martin earned 11 kills and secured 2 blocks, with Brooks putting down 9 kills and earning 1 block.
Altogether, the women had 53 assists. McGowan led the assist category with 23, followed by Ozsoy’s 20 and Small’s 10. The team totaled 53 digs, with libero Small leading the category with 21.
Collectively, the team fought with passion and intensity in all games. Not once did the Lady Lions roll over and accept defeat. When they returned to Florence, they began preparing for their first home match against Alabama A&M.
After their first weekend of playing, the team reflected on their overall performance. Coach Johnson knew this first weekend was against highly competitive teams, but he was proud of how the team progressed as the weekend went on. He specifically praised the freshmen, as half of his starters are true freshmen.
“It was a pretty tall task for a bunch of freshmen,” said Johnson. “But I thought they competed really hard, and we learned a lot about ourselves.”
The Lions revisited the basic ideology of controlling their side of the net the following week in practice. Although the team has such powerful hitters, like Brooks and Ricketts, they worked relentlessly on the basics of controlling the controllable with things like mentality and game structure. Revisiting these basics allowed them to absolutely dominate the Bulldogs on Sep. 3.
At Flowers Hall, the Lions managed a straight sweep of all three sets against the Bulldogs. From the jump, both offense and defense proved to be in motion. Tietz earned 7 kills on a .545 hitting percentage. The set ended 25-14 in favor of the Lions.
The second set proved to only fire up the team more, as five players put down at least two kills each, bringing the number to 17 kills in set two. Defensively, the back row let little to no balls get past them, allowing the offense to work smoothly. The final score for set two was 25-11.
For the third and final set, North Alabama went all out to give the Bulldogs a run for their money. Interestingly enough, the Bulldogs finished the set with a zero hitting percentage, showcasing the absolute power houses on defense. Sophomores Nicole Sargent and Olivia Fenoff, along with Small, each contributed a service ace to the scoreboard. The score ended 25-12.
The team earned 42 kills, 41 assists, 7 aces and 6 blocks, which is an impressive statistical rundown for their first home match.
Tietz tallied 15 kills and 3 blocks, while Ricketts earned 7 kills and 1 block. Both senior Katy Floyd and Sargent secured 6 kills, and Sargent had the highest number of blocks with 5.
Defensively, the Lady Lions totaled 48 digs. Small led the category with 19, followed by Floyd’s 14, Fenoff’s 11 and Ozsoy’s 4.
After the successful match, the team reconvened at practice to prepare to compete against UT Martin, Missouri State and Arkansas – Pine Bluff. Coach Johnson is excited to see his team continue to progress and grow alongside each other.
“How to move and how to play is an art, it will take time,” Johnson said.
North Alabama will next host their own UNA Volleyball Classic at Flowers Hall, where they will take on Arkansas State, UAB and Jacksonville State. These games look to be impressive matchups, so plan on showing up to support our Lady Lions.
