CONWAY, AR  – The Alabama State women's volleyball team took the first two sets from Texas A&M Corpus Christi before losing in five sets (26-24, 26-24, 15-25, 14-25, 13-15) at the University of Central Arkansas Crain Automotive Invitational on Friday afternoon. 

It was the opening match of the Invitational for the Lady Hornets (3-8), who will next play Louisiana Tech (6-5) on Saturday at 10 a.m. and host Central Arkansas (2-9) at 7 p.m.

The Lady Hornets came out firing on all cylinders, racking up a combined .324 hitting percentage (32 kills against just eight errors) in the opening two sets and appeared to be on the verge of victory.

But, ASU faltered over the next two sets to hit lowball numbers of .125 and .111 marks in the third and fourth sets to help the Islanders back in it. 

ASU came back a bit with some quality play in the fifth—and deciding—set to hit .217, but was nosed out by two points.

The Islanders (11-4), who are a member of the Southland Conference, were paced by Kelsee Felux's 16 kills and Kristyn Nicholson's 54 assists and nine digs. 

The defense was there for ASU most of the match as the team set a new season-high for digs in a match with 67. 

It besets the previous season high of 65 digs in its victory against North Carolina A&T on Sept. 11.

Four ASU players also had at least eight kills. 

Amber Bennett dropped a season-high 14 kills with six blocks while Rachel Smith picked up her fifth double-double effort of the season, producing  13 kills and 15 digs. 

Freshman right side Kimeko Bennett equaled a season-best 12 kills on a sharp .455 hitting percentage and Myla Marshall contributed with eight kills and six blocks. 

Riley MacDonald set a career-high in assists with 29 and nine digs. 

Kori Kutsch notched her second career double-double with 20 assists and 10 digs.

#GOHORNETS#