MOBILE, Ala-- The University of Mobile volleyball team fell 0-3 (25-27, 14-25, 20-25) to 23rd-ranked NCAA-II University of West Florida to close out the regular season Monday.
Mobile (15-15) will head into the SSAC Tournament Nov. 12-13 at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in Gulfport, Miss., as the #3 seed from the West Division and face 2nd-seed Shorter University Friday at 5:45 pm in the opening round.
The Lady Rams hit .061 as a team but finished with 11.5 team blocks. Disah Kolassiba led the team with 8 blocks, while Erica Rath, Shea McBee and Katie Dowd added 3 apiece.
Kelly Sherling led the team with 9 kills, while Dowd added 5. Katy McColliser has 10 digs in the match.
West Florida hit .184 as a team and finished with 5 blocks, while Chandler Carney led with 8 kills and 3 blocks.
The first set saw West Florida jump out to an 8-3 lead behind several Mobile errors, but the Lady Rams righted the ship and made it a thrilling set, with both teams battling back and forth. Mobile scored five of the next six points to pull within 8-9, and then down 23-19, Kaylee McGrew served up five-straight points to tie it at 23-23. Back-to-back UWF errors made it 25-24 Mobile, but the Lady Argos grabbed the final three points to finish it off.
Set No. 2 was all West Florida, as the Lady Argos used six runs of 3-0 or more to grab a 25-14 set victory.
In the final set, it looked like Mobile would extend the match to four sets, as the Lady Rams ran out to a 7-3 lead after a pair of blocks and a pair of Sherling kills. From there, UWF used a 10-4 run to pull ahead 13-11 with four kills and a pair of Mobile service errors. Mobile answered right back with two points to tie it up, and the teams traded points until Mobile held an 18-17 lead after back-to-back kills from Sherling and Dowd. West Florida took 8 of the final 10 points to close it out, with 5 kills down the stretch.