BATON ROUGE, La.  – It didn't come easy. 

And, it never usually will.

Alabama State shook off an earlier loss on the day to oust Texas Southern with a 3-0 win (25-21, 25-12, 26-24) in the second semifinal at Cliford Seymour Gym in the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) Tournament. 

Now, the Lady Hornets (21-14) join Jackson State (14-21) as the two teams left remaining for the opportunity to win the SWAC Championship starting Sunday at 5 p.m. on the campus of Southern University. 

Alabama State is making its third consecutive appearance in the championship. 

It was won the previous two SWAC championships. 

ASU lost the first semifinal match to Jackson State 3-1 (23-25, 25-15, 21-25, 23-25) on Saturday afternoon.

That means Alabama State will have to defeat the Lady Tigers twice on Sunday, a feat it accomplished last season in defeating Southern for the 2014 championship. 

One win for Jackson State will do the trick since they are the only undefeated team left in the tournament with a record of 3-0.

Jackson State last won the conference title in 2012 after it completed a back-to-back title reign. 

"They just don't do it the easy way," said ASU head coach Penny-Lucas White.

"The girls know what they have to do.  We'll watch some video and get ready.  I know they'll come off fighting.  We beat ourselves [in the early match versus Jackson State] and made errors at critical times.  I thought we were fine [against Texas Southern.]"

In the Texas Southern match, Myla Marshall led with 13 kills on a .379 hitting percentage. 

Now, she needs only 14 kills to reach 1,000 in her career.

Kori Kutsch had another solid match with a game-high 38 assists and turned the double-double with 12 digs.

Rachel Smith had 11 kills and seven digs, Jamie Coleman led the defense with 15 digs and Lorena Rosario added seven kills off the bench. 

ASU has now defeated TSU three consecutive times after dropping its prior two matches versus them. 

The Lady Hornets played sharp in the opening set with 11 kills against just one error. 

TSU came back to tie it at 20 apiece, but the Lady Hornets buckled down to score five of the next six to take the set.

Smith served for four straight points during the span while picking up an ace and Marshall notched a kill. 

After falling behind 4-1 in the second set, ASU came back to win seven of eight to open up an 8-5 lead.

Marshall, Amber Bennett and Rosario came through with some big kills to extend the lead to 19-10, causing a TSU timeout.

Kutsch racked up an ace and then Tiara Kelley, Smith and Marshall each collected a kill down the stretch to wrap it up. 

ASU had another similar run after trailing early in the third set.

Down 7-5, the Lady Hornets built a seven-point barrage to go up 12-7 after Kutsch set up Marshall for a spike. 

TSU took a 24-23 lead on a Robyn Shannon kill, but ASU was able to take the last three points on a Rosario kill, an A. Bennett block and  a Lady Tigers' attack error. 

Shannon led the Lady Tigers (16-19) with 14 kills and six digs. 

In the first semifinal, Alabama State actually scored more total points than JSU(92-90), but lost each of its sets by four points or fewer including the first and fourth sets in which it lost by just two points.

The Lady Hornets hit for a better overall team hitting percentage (.232 to .209) and had more team blocks (13-7), but the big front line of the Lady Tigers kept attacking and found a way to win the crucial points down the stretch.

JSU sophomore Taija Thomas had one of the best matches of her career, leading all players with 20 kills, while she received good back up from Mikayla Rolle (15 kills) and Alexis Ford (14 kills).

Jackson State continued their hot streak by winning for the 13^th time in its last 15 matches and has taken two of three matches against ASU this season. 

Marshall led the Lady Hornets with 13 kills on a .429 hitting percentage with four blocks. 

A. Bennett had 10 kills and five blocks, Smith added nine kills and eight digs, and Kutsch compiled a double-double with 37 assists and 10 digs.

Live stats can be followed here: http://www.swac.org/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=27400&ATCLID=210401695.

The match can be viewed on the SWAC Digital Network. 

#GOHORNETS#