BATON ROUGE, La.  – Making their third consecutive championship appearance , the Alabama State volleyball team was dethroned by Jackson State 3-1 (14-25, 25-17, 23-25, 13-25) in the Southwestern Athletic Conference Championship on Sunday at Cliford Seymour Gym on the campus of Southern University.

After another long and winding season with the previous two SWAC championships in its pocket, the Lady Hornets (21-15) ran into a well-prepared and highly motivated Jackson State team that answered their long-time rivals back with its hard-hitting front line. 

"We had a great year," said ASU head coach Penny-Lucas White, whose team finished with a third straight 20-plus win season. 

"This one doesn't define our success.  My team has played a phenomenal tradition.  I look forward to watching my young talent continuing to carry the torch and we will be back.  I went with a 5-1 [formation] for most of the tournament, but I had a plan to go to the 6-2 and we came up short, but that's how the ball bounces.  Jackson State played phenomenal tonight and they deserved it.  I wish them well and I just want them to represent the SWAC well."   

Four Lady Tigers finished with double-digit in kills including Tajia Thomas (14), Mikayla Rolle (13), Alexsis Ford (13) and Jenna Siddiqui (11).

On the Lady Hornets' side, only Myla Marshall was able to reach double digits in kills with a team-high 14.

Ironically, Marshall finished with exactly 1,000 career kills for her career at Alabama State. 

Marshall put up MVP-type numbers for the tournament, collecting 59 kills (3.28 kills per set) on a sky high .412 hitting percentage and 25 total blocks (1.39 blocks per set).
 
Kori Kutsch had 176 assists in the five matches (9.78 assists per set) as the primary setter for ASU.

Marshall and Kutsch were the two Lady Hornets named to the SWAC All-Tournament Team.

Jackson State (15-21) was the only team in the tournament to go unbeaten with a record of 4-0 and won their third title in the past five seasons. 

It last won the conference title in 2012.

The first set was an ugly one for ASU as the team never quite got into synch and Jackson State came out firing on all cylinders by putting up a formidable block and limiting their errors with only two. 

ASU hit for a negative hitting team percentage of .071 while JSU came out with a scalding .632. 

The Lady Hornets battled back, however, with some adjustments to take the second set. 

Marshall, Tiara Kelley and Kutsch led the charge as ASU took six of seven points to get ahead 11-4. 

A kill by Marshall made it a 17-9 advantage. 

Kutsch notched an ace and kills by Rachel Smith, Kelley and Briana Dorsey followed by a Dorsey block secured the set 25-17 for ASU.
 
Alabama State got into a hole in the third set as it trailed 16-10 with Rolle, Ford and Thomas all notching kills to grab the lead.

ASU got within two at 19-17 after reeling off four consecutive points on two kills by Marshall, a Marshall block, and a Kelley block. 

JSU pushed back with a Rolle kill, a Rolle block and an ace from Markayisha Masani. 

The last few points were played a high level with each team hustling hard to keep the volley alive. 

JSU won a marathon point to make it 23-21 and went on to take the set 25-23. 

In the fourth set, ASU was able to take a 6-4 advantage after a couple kills by Rosario, but JSU took over from there by winning 10 of the following 11 points. 

ASU was only able to pull within eight of the lead for the remainder of the set at 20-12.

 It dropped the fourth set 25-13.

#GOHORNETS#