TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (9/13/13) – The Arkansas State volleyball team defeated UT Martin (6-4) in its first match of the day by a score of 3-1 (15-25, 25-12, 25-17, 25-21), but later fell to Alabama 3-0 (25-14, 25-12, 25-23) in the first day of the Hampton Inn Bama Bash.

The first set was even at 9-9 after a bad set from UT Martin, but the Skyhawks took control of the rest of the set by going on a 16-6 run to win 25-15.  A-State (2-7) responded in dominating fashion after dropping the first set by racing out to a 5-1 lead that was capped by a Shelby Crncic service ace.  The Skyhawks got within one point at 5-4 but never got any closer in the set.  Jackie Gerig recorded a kill to make it 6-4 in favor of the Red Wolves and that started a 20-8 run that gave A-State a 25-12 second set victory.

With the match tied 1-1, Arkansas State jumped out to a 7-2 lead in the third set before UT Martin cut the deficit to 7-6 on a 4-0 run.  A-State responded with a 6-0 run to increase the lead to 13-6.  The Skyhawks never got closer than three points the rest of the set and a 4-0 run culminated by a Kelsey Sullivan kill for the Red Wolves gave A-State a 25-17 set victory and a 2-1 lead in the match. 

The fourth set was a back and forth contest that had UT Martin and the Red Wolves locked up at 16-16 before a 5-0 run by A-State made the score 21-16.  The Skyhawks got within 23-21, but A-State's Sarah Kemp and Shelby Holmes registered consecutive kills to give A-State the 25-21 set victory and a 3-1 win over UT Martin.

A-State's attacks were pretty evenly distributed as five players had at least 16 attacks and four players had at least eight kills, with Sadie Clark and Sullivan leading the way with 11 kills each.  Gerig led A-State in handing out assists with 36 and Kemp added three service aces with no service errors during the match.  Defensively, Megan Baska led the Red Wolves with 16 digs while Sullivan recorded five total blocks.

In the second match of the day against Alabama (6-2), the match was tied at 3-3 after six points but a 7-1 run put the Crimson Tide up 10-4.  An attack error by Alabama got A-State within 13-9, but the Red Wolves wouldn't get any closer as ASU lost the match by a count of 25-14.  The second set went much the same way for the Red Wolves as Alabama jumped out to a 10-5 lead.  A-State got within four points on a couple of occasions, the last coming at 13-9 on a kill by Kemp.  Alabama went on a 12-3 run to close out the set by a score of 25-12 and take a 2-0 lead in the match.

A-State competed much better in the third set against the Crimson Tide by jumping out to a 4-1 lead.  Alabama came back to tie the set at 8-8 and went ahead by as many as five points at 22-17.  The Red Wolves fought its way back to within one point at 24-23 on a ball handling error by the Crimson Tide.  A-State wasn't able to keep the serve in bounds on the next point and Alabama took the set 25-23 and swept the match over the Red Wolves 3-0.

Sullivan led A-State with nine kills in the match on a .389 hitting percentage.  Gerig led the Red Wolves with 23 assists and also added two kills.  Defensively, Baska led A-State with 13 digs, while Markie Schaedig added eight digs of her own.

“We got off to a rough start in the match against UT-Martin, but fought back and really got rolling at the end,” A-State volleyball coach David Rehr said.  “We played some good teams at Ole Miss last weekend and we ran into another tonight against Alabama.  We're finally getting healthy now too and we're heading in the right direction.  Hopefully we can come out and compete well against Nicholls State and come home with a winning weekend.”