ITTA BENA, Miss. – Clay, Hines and the Williams duo had spectacular nights while the third set featured just one error and two of the three sets had hitting percentages over 50 percent as the Alabama State University women's volleyball team posted a straight-set victory, 25-17, 25-22, 25-13, over Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) foe Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils on Friday afternoon inside the Harrison HPER Complex on the team's final weekend of road play this season.
The Hornets (7-19, 5-8 SWAC), who are looking for ways to claim and maintain one of the final postseason berths, had no problem taking care of the Delta Devils (1-21, 0-13 SWAC), handing its opposition their 18th straight loss while extending its winning streak in the head-to-head series to 27 straight matches dating back to 2013, as well as 46 consecutive set victories since 2018.
Bama State built early leads that it held onto throughout the first and third sets. To open the day, a stretch of success behind
Taylor Williams' serves and
Alexis Williams' kills made it a four-point contest. As that margin stood for the next several series,
Kamrynn Clay served into several rallies that resulted in errors by MVSU, stretching the Hornets' lead to eight, which it carried through the end.
Set two was the closest contest between the teams, as Valley put up a strong fight and was able to take advantage of some early miscues to claim several key points when it mattered; however,
Kaylen Hines sent home several strong kills to tie things at 15, and the Lady Hornets won six of the final eight points with four kills to claim a three-point win.
The final set was a swift contest that sealed things for the visitors, who made few errors and didn't finish the service order a second time, as
Taylor Williams secured seven total points – three by way of the ace serve – including the final four points to cement the win.
Clay led the way with 37 set assists as she continues to climb the program leaderboard after securing her 2,000th assist last week.
Alexis Williams paced the team with 17 kills, although both Hines and
Lyric Edwards had 10 kills without an error, the latter doing so on 10 attack attempts for a perfect success rate on the afternoon. Libero
Mirra Riddle tallied eight digs and a service ace, while
Taylor Williams led the team with a trio of service aces to go along with four digs.
ASU nearly doubled the Delta Devils in kills (50-27) while also leading the way in assists (47-27), digs (31-21) and points (57-35).
The Lady Hornets prepare for its last three games in the upcoming week, traveling to Jackson to face the Tigers of Jackson State on Sunday, Nov. 8 at noon. It then plays host to two of the teams fighting for the final SWAC postseason spot – Alcorn State (Friday, Nov. 13 at 6 p.m.) and Southern (Sunday, Nov. 15 at noon) inside Lockhart Gymnasium.
