Mobile Volleyball Opens Season With Two Wins

MOBILE, Ala-- The University of Mobile volleyball team opened the 2011 season by defeating Southeastern University 3-1 (20-25, 25-18, 25-22, 26-24) and Talladega College 3-0 (26-24, 25-17, 25-22) at Pharr Gym.

Mobile (2-0) will visit Xavier University of New Orleans Monday, Aug. 29 at 7 pm.

Against Southeastern, Mobile hit .190 as a team and served up 9 aces. Sara Van Wert and Alison Kenney led the way with 12 kills apiece, while Lisa Alms added 11 kills. Melody Tenney and Reagin Boggs each finished with 25 assists.

Defensively, Katy McCollister led the way with 17 digs, while Tenney added 15, Kenney added 13 and Alicia Pena added 12.

Southeastern took the opening set by out-hitting Mobile .200 to .043, but the Lady Rams hit over .200 the rest of the way, while the Fire hit below .121.

In the clinching fourth set, Mobile was down 8-5, but used a 5-0 run with McCollister at the service line to take the lead. After Southeastern answered with a 10-5 run to lead 18-15, the Lady Rams regrouped and battled back. Four Fire errors helped make it 20-20, and the teams traded points to a 24-24 tie. An Alms kill and a Fire attack error finished it in Mobile's favor.

The team served up 15 aces to take down Talladega, led by five from Kenney and four from Tenney. Offensively, Alms and Disah Kolassiba paced the team with 9 kills apiece, while McCollister finished with 11 digs.

Talladega had only three aces in the contest.

In the decisive third set against the Tornados, Mobile found themselves down 11-9 and 14-12 early, before a 4-0 run with McCollister serving put them back ahead 16-14. Talladega would not regain the lead from there, as a Van Wert kill clinched the match.