SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Alabama State University volleyball team traveled to the campus of South Carolina Upstate for its second tournament of the season, and while it found a rhythm down the stretch against the UNC Wilmington Seahawks, the Lady Hornets ultimately fell, 3-1, inside the G.B. Hodge Center on Thursday evening.
The Lady Hornets (0-4 overall) collected a 25-22 set victory in the third frame and nearly had a win in the fourth and final set, but the Seahawks (3-2) gained a 2-0 advantage and managed to shut things down in the fourth set to open its second tournament of the 2026 season.
Set one had a strong, two-point start by ASU, and a back-and-forth next several points, but the next dozen ultimately shifted momentum to UNCW. It was a similar battle in the second set, with the two teams going punch-for-punch through the first eight points before the Hawks pulled away.
Frame three featured a flip of the script, as the Hornets came back from a six-point deficit multiple times, aided by a 6-0 run with libero
Mirra Riddle at the service line to make it 18-16.
Taylor Williams held the serve for another five-point run, one that was capped off by a pair of kills by
Kaylen Hines that gave the Hornets a one-point advantage. Three more Hines kills over the final four points sealed a three-point win, extending things to a fourth set.
Similar to the first three sets, one team rattled off a consecutive point run, as ASU took advantage of four errors by four different players. UNCW came back in the picture, tallying six straight points, but the two teams moved forward and kept the margin within striking distance down the stretch. A 21-17 Seahawk lead was succeeded by four ASU points – two coming by way of Williams aces – to knot things up. In the end, Wilmington scored three of the final four to claim the set.
Hines had a team-high 19 kills and 2.5 blocks (all assists), while
Kamrynn Clay had 30 set assists, eight digs and three block assists. Williams totaled three aces while adding a pair of assists and a kill on the evening, while Riddle had 15 digs in a losing effort.
Alabama State matched the Seahawks in block assists (14-14) while limiting service errors, 5-3, while the third-set numbers put Bama State's attacking effectiveness nearly 10 percentage points better than its opponents.
The Lady Hornets volleyball squad will finish the tournament with a pair of matches inside the G.B. Hodge Center on Friday, Sept. 4, against West Florida (at noon) before closing it out against host USC Upstate (at 4 p.m.). It caps the weekend off against Gardner-Webb in Boiling Springs, N.C., on Saturday, Sept. 5, at 10 a.m.
