NEW ORLEANS, La-- The University of Mobile volleyball team dropped its first match of the 2011 season Monday, falling 2-3 (18-25, 25-17, 29-31, 25-16, 13-15).

Mobile (2-1) will head to the University of St. Thomas Tournament in Houston, Texas Sept. 2-3 and start it with a 3 pm contest against University of St. Thomas.

Lisa Alms racked up 20 kills to lead Mobile, while Alison Kenney finished with a double-double of 16 kills and 15 digs. Katy McCollister led the team with 16 digs, while Alicia Pena added 11. Melody Tenney finished with 29 assists and 3 aces to lead the team.

Mobile hit .098 as a team and finished with 9 aces and 17 service errors.

Tayloir Reuther was the only Gold Nugget in double-figures with 12 kills, while Patrice Hightower had 29 assists. Celeste Poe led the team with 16 digs.

Xavier hit .055 as a team and finished with 8 aces and 10 errors.

Mobile hit only -.027 in the opening set on their way to falling 18-25, but they bounced back and hit .207 in the second set to take it 25-17.

Set number three was a thriller, and turned out to be a difference maker. With the teams trading points to a 19-19 score, the Lady Rams fell behind 21-19 before taking three-straight points to go ahead 22-21. An error gave the ball back to Xavier, and the teams started trading points again until Mobile went ahead 25-24 on back-to-back kills from Alms. A Reuther kill from Xavier extended the set, and she had three more kills down the stretch to take the match.

In the final set, Mobile grabbed a 12-10 advantage on a kill from Kenney and an ace from Tenney, but then back-to-back errors knotted the game. Three-straight Mobile errors then closed out the match in Xavier's favor.