Alabama State dropped their first game on the opening day of action at the Trojan Invitational, falling to East Tennessee State 3-1 (21-25, 25-21, 13-25, 8-25) at the Trojan Arena in Troy, AL.
 
ETSU won the first set 25-21 on four lead changes and six ties.  Although the Lady Hornets led by five points (12-7) midway through the set,  the Buccaneers rallied back for an 8-0 run to take a 22-17 lead.  From there, the Lady Hornets battled back and forth before ETSU was able to win the set.
 
Myla Marshall led the team with five blocks in set one (two solo and three assisted) as a team the Lady Hornets led ETSU in blocks 6-2.  
 
Set two was very similar to the first set, but the Lady Hornets trudged on to win this set 25-21.  Once again, there were six ties and four lead changes as the two teams went back and forth.
 
Kimeko Bennett led the Lady Hornets with six kills, while Marshall and Amber Bennett had four apiece.   

The third set saw the Bucs jump out on top of ASU on a 13-6 lead.   The Lady Hornets weren't able to cut into their points as ETSU won out on the serves of senior Khadijah Wiley 25-13.

Early on in set four ETSU jumped out quickly to take a 9-1 lead and ASU came roaring back with four consecutive points to cut the lead to five.  ASU could never recover from that final run as the ending score was 25-8.
 
Sophomore Rylee Milhorn of ETSU led both teams with 17 kills, while junior Kristen Favre had 40 assists and freshman Hailey Agular had a game-high 20 digs.
 
Marshall led ASU with nine kills and nine blocks (two solo and seven assisted).  Kori Kutsch led the Lady Hornets with 17 assists while adding 11 digs.  Scout Wonsang led the team with 12 digs and Rachel Smith also had 11 digs.
 
The Lady Hornets will face host team Troy tomorrow at noon and will close out the tournament games against CSU Bakersfield at 5 p.m.