Alcorn Cruises to 3-0 Sweep over Talladega

LORMAN, Miss. – A season-high .338 hitting percentage overwhelmed Talladega College as the hot-hitting Alcorn State University volleyball program notched a 3-0 (25-11, 25-13, 25-13) sweep Friday evening at the Davey L. Whitney Complex.
 
Alcorn (6-13, 3-6 SWAC) committed just 11 errors in the match which was a season-low.
 
The match marked the return of freshman Sydney Joseph after she missed the last two due to an injury. Joseph, who is Alcorn's leading attacker, tallied a team-high eight kills and hit for a .389 mark. Sophomore Mae Lewis put away six kills and senior Alondra Rivera Modesto had five.
 
Junior Barbara Cabo was the only Lady Brave to reach double-figures as she registered 12 assists. Sophomore Fiapaipai Iosia turned in a solid outing of six assists and five service aces.
 
"I thought we played well. There's definitely some things we could have cleaned up, but we're going to take what we did tonight with our 3-0 win and use it for next week and conference next weekend," Lewis said. "We know we have to go to conference [Round-Up] on a high next weekend. We knew that we needed this win tonight so we can go in next weekend and try to dominate."
 
Talladega (12-10, 5-4 GCAC) was paced by Reanna Burroughs who etched a match-high nine kills on 26 attempts.
 
The Alcorn defense limited the Tornados to a -.042 hitting percentage.
 
The match was tied 5-5 in the first set when the Lady Braves went on a 7-0 run to go up 12-5 on the serve of sophomore Jasmine Chambers. The spurt included three aces. Alcorn extended the advantage to 17-6 after kills by Joseph and freshman Havanna Garza. Alcorn ended the frame with four consecutive kills including three from Lewis and one by Rivera Modesto.
 
The Lady Braves got off to a quick 10-1 start in the second set on the serve of Iosia. Alcorn's lead was never in jeopardy, and a spike by freshman Simone Barren increased the edge to 19-9. The Lady Braves closed out the frame on a kill by freshman Jurnee Calhoun.
 
Talladega hung around early in the third, but a pair of kills by Joseph created separation at 16-9. A block-assists by Garza and junior Wanya Morris made it 22-13, and an ace by Iosia put it out of reach at 24-15.

It was the first-ever meeting between the two programs.
 
"We wanted to hit our spots in practice and to work on technical things to get us ready for our matches," said sophomore Kaylyn Latin. "We have a Tri-Match on Tuesday and we need to play hard and play smart."
 
The Lady Braves will look to duplicate their performance Tuesday when they host Southern-New Orleans and Lane College in a Tri-Match beginning at 2 p.m. at the Davey L. Whitney Complex.
 
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