HUNTSVILLE, Ala. | Alabama State paired a season-best .542 attack percentage with a career-night from senior Candace Martin (11 kills, .833 attack percentage) and made amends for last month's loss to Grambling with a dominant three-set victory over the Lady Tigers (25-4, 25-12, 25-11) to cap a perfect opening day at the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) Eastern Roundup.

The Lady Hornets (12-17, 9-2 SWAC) opened the day by making quick work of Southern and cruised to a three-set victory (25-19, 25-22, 25-11) as junior outside hitter Bayle' Bennett connected on her 800^th career kill en route to her fourth double-double of 2018 while senior Kori Kutsch notched her 12^th match of the year with at least 30 assists.

Southern 0 Alabama State 3
Kutsch (41 assists, 13 digs) and Bennett (14 kills, 11 digs) posted double-doubles and Alabama State had a trio of players with at least 11 kills. Bennett led the way with 14 and Krysta Medearis and Taira Cottingham each tallied 11. The Lady Hornets had 50 digs compared to only 29 for the Jaguars.

Alabama State found itself in a hole early, falling behind 3-6 and 8-11 in the opening stanza before grabbing their first lead at 16-15 courtesy of a Candace Martin kill.  The Lady Hornets used two, 3-0 runs and a 4-0 run to sprint away with the set. Bennett and Medearis flexed their muscle in the opening frame with the junior duo combining for 12 kills. Bennett scored five of the Lady Hornets final six points in the set, including a kill to clinch the frame. The Lady Hornets outhit the Jaguars .209 to .029 and Kutsch had 16 assists and seven digs.

A similar trend followed in the second frame as Alabama State trailed for most of the set and fought off three Southern (5-14, 3-6) runs to secure the frame. Head coach Penny Lucas-White called a critical timeout when the Jaguars narrowed the deficit to 23-22 and Cottingham nailed away an attack for the 24th point while Southern sailed a shot over the Lady Hornets defense to clinch the stanza for Alabama State. Once again, the Lady Hornets outhit the Jaguars .282 to .229 while Cottingham exploded for eight kills in the frame. Alabama State bolted out of the gate in the final set with a 4-0 run and never looked back, controlling the final frame from start to finish as the Lady Hornets connected on an efficient 13-of-19 attacks (.526).

Alabama State 3 Grambling State 0
Alabama State recorded one of its most dominant outings of 2018 as Kutsch snagged another 30-assist outing (38) and the Lady Hornets were sterling defensively, amassing 43 digs to the Lady Tigers' (6-20, 3-8) 19.

Alabama State set the tone in the opening frame behind a balanced attack with five different players recording a kill. The Lady Hornets hit a sparkling .667 in the set and sophomore Amber Bolden propelled the Lady Hornets on a 14-0 run to end the frame with an array of well-placed serves.The dominance continued into the second stanza behind four kills from Cottingham and a .370 attack percentage. The Lady Tigers finally put up a fight in the third set to build an early lead (0-3); however, Alabama State ran away with the match on a 14-4 run.

The Lady Hornets return to action tomorrow with another doubleheader and will face Prairie View A&M (10:00 a.m.) and UAPB (7:00 p.m.).

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